Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 22, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B1 CITY?BUSINESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ? CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ? WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM B1 TUESDAY DECEMBER 22, 2020 SECTION BCONNECT WITH WINNIPEG'S NO. 1 NEWS SOURCE? A S if driving through a Winnipeg winter isn't bad enough.An American road-rage ex- pert says bottled-up frustration over the pandemic and the effect it's hav- ing on the holiday season could have played a role in a couple of notable in- cidents on Winnipeg streets over the past few days. "I think people are just stressed and weary, in general," said Steve Albrecht, a threat-management con- sultant and former San Diego police officer who works as an expert wit- ness in road-rage cases. "I think people are tired of follow- ing rules." Last Thursday, a Winnipeg woman driving with her father in the vehicle was followed for more than 10 min- utes by another driver who repeat- edly rammed her vehicle, eventually causing both to spin out in traffic on Portage Avenue. In a post on Reddit, the woman - identified by CBC News as Kiana Jobo - described how the incident began when she was making a left turn from Sargent Avenue onto Milt Stegall Drive, angering the driver of a white Chevrolet pickup truck, who began aggressively pursuing and col- liding with Jobo's small Hyundai se- dan. "This man was ramming my vehi- cle into cars ahead of me and cars be- side me, endangering the lives of not just mine, but everyone else. It was clear this man was not stopping and I had to do everything in my power to escape," Jobo wrote in the post. "This attack finally ended on Portage Avenue where I was head- ing westbound (towards Polo Park), where he smashed into the driver side of my vehicle, causing me to spin out and crash into the large concrete median." While no one was injured, Jobo described the incident as "one of the most horrific and traumatic mo- ments" of her life, adding that the vio- lence exceeded typical road rage. A video accompanying her post shows the car being hit numerous times while a male voice inside Jobo's vehi- cle says, "The guy's trying to kill us." The 57-year-old driver of the pick- up truck, who has not been identi- fied, was charged with one count of dangerous operation of a motor ve- hicle, Winnipeg police said. He has been released on a promise to appear. "I don't feel safe knowing this per- son was released," Jobo said in her post. "I don't wish this type of experi- ence on anyone and I don't want to see this happen to anyone else." Albrecht said what happened to Jobo is rare, but noted road rage is a symptom of other anger issues that could be heightened by the bottled-up frustrations of living under the con- straints of the pandemic. "The holiday season makes it tougher, but there's a sense that we've been trapped by the pandemic for 10 months and certain people just can't cope with that sense of having their lives controlled like that," he said, adding there's a sense of anonymity when someone is in another vehicle. "So being able to act out in their car is a bit of freedom that they think they can give themselves." Albrecht said road rage is typically a sign of "unmastered anger" and a lack of insight into the consequences of the aggressor's actions. Meanwhile, early Monday, a Hydro pole was toppled near Henderson Highway and Roosevelt Place after a "heated exchange" between driv- ers at a nearby parking lot, a police spokesperson said. Shortly after the 4 a.m. exchange, one driver collided with the pole and both vehicles drove off, police said, adding no arrests have been made but the investigation is continuing. Manitoba Hydro expected the dam- age to be repaired by early Monday evening. julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @jsrutgers Road-rage incidents could be driven by pandemic: expert JULIA-SIMONE RUTGERS Winnipeg woman recalls harrowing commute in online post LOCAL criminology and restorative justice experts are lauding Manitoba's decrease in incarceration rates as a "positive" step. While Manitoba maintains one of the highest incarceration rates in the country, rates for both adults and youth have gone down by 12 and 15 per cent, respectively, from 2017-18 to 2018-19, suggests a Statistics Canada report re- leased Monday. It also highlights drops of 20 and 34 per cent, respectively, in the average daily counts of adults and youth in- volved in the province's correctional services since 2014-15, which coincides with a downward trend countrywide spanning the last four years. "I don't think it's really clear if there's any sort of one particular program or initiative that has made a difference," said Michael Weinrath, a criminology professor at the University of Winni- peg. Weinrath said incarceration rates often don't reflect crime rates, as crime has increased in Manitoba over the same four-year period. "There's other factors that can be afoot," he said in a phone interview Monday. Among them, police and Crown activ- ities are important factors in terms of how aggressively they pursue arrests and argue for longer sentences or op- pose bail. He said Manitoba's decrease in in- carceration rates could reflect the province's commitment to restorative justice and its adjustment to the Jordan decision, a 2016 Supreme Court ruling that set the maximum amount of time - from when a person initially faces charges to when their trial ends - at 18 months in provincial courts and 30 months in superior courts. However, Weinrath said the prov- ince should continue finding ways to get people to trial faster - a sentiment echoed by Sharon Perrault, acting exec- utive director at John Howard Society of Manitoba. The proportion of Manitobans in re- mand still outweighs those in custody at 68 per cent, despite a 14 per cent de- crease from 2017-18 to 2018-19. Perrault said it's worth revising which individuals can be released with- out posing a risk. "It's a proven fact a lot of people will do better often in the community when they're engaged in causes of support," she said the John Howard organization offers programs and supports for ag- gression, healthy relationship building and substance abuse to people in the justice system. "It's always better if we can look at solutions other than incarceration," said Perrault. Indigenous adults and youth still make up a disproportionately higher number of admissions to custody, at 75 per cent of adults in Manitoba and 47 per cent of youth countrywide. Damon Johnson, president of the Ab- original Council of Winnipeg, cautions the COVID-19 pandemic has exacer- bated the poverty of Indigenous Mani- tobans. With increases in poverty, the prov- ince can usually anticipate increases in crime, he said. "There's a long way to go." Lower incarceration rates still indicate room for improvement ROSANNA HEMPEL A WINNIPEG man has been sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of par- ole for at least 10 years, after admitting to killing another man in a drug-in- duced rage inside a Middle Gate home early this year. Jordan Bonwick's relatively early guilty plea to second-degree murder shows "a desire to resolve this as ex- peditiously as possible," defence law- yer Brett Gladstone told Queen's Bench Justice Robert Dewar at a sentencing hearing last week. "Agreeing to plead guilty to a life sen- tence is no trifling thing," Gladstone said. Court heard Bonwick, 26, his ex-girl- friend and their toddler daughter had been visiting Michael Bruyere, 34, on Feb. 11, at an apartment belonging to Bruyere's aunt, when Bonwick left for a time to pick something up at a nearby convenience store. When he returned, the ex-girlfriend later told police, Bon- wick "was acting like a zombie" and ap- peared to be high on Xanax. When Bonwick picked a fight with the woman, causing her to retreat to a bedroom with their child, Bruyere intervened and told Bonwick to leave, court heard. Bonwick "freaked out" and stabbed Bruyere eight times in the neck, face and chest, puncturing his heart. Bonwick poured bleach on the floor around Bruyere's body before leaving the building with his ex-girlfriend and child and meeting outside with his fath- er, who he had called earlier to pick up the child, Crown attorney Mark Kantor told court. When Bonwick told his father he had stabbed someone, the father drove away with the child and called police. Bonwick, who fled the house with his ex-girlfriend in Bruyere's aunt's car, was arrested later that same day out- side a Salter Street convenience store. Bonwick has an "exceptionally limit- ed criminal record," Gladstone said, but his adult life has been marked by "sig- nificant substance abuse struggles," beginning at 18, when cocaine and pills "became a problem." Kantor and Gladstone jointly recom- mended Bonwick be allowed to apply for parole after serving 10 years in prison, the minimum period of parole ineligibility allowed by law. Dewar said he accepted Bonwick's early guilty plea as a genuine sign of remorse. "If nothing else, that shows an indi- vidual who is at least prepared to try to overcome what caused him to do such a terrible thing in the past," Dewar said. dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca Life in prison for stabbing death DEAN PRITCHARD Killer 'like a zombie' just prior to attack Police investigate the death of Michael Bruyere at a Middle Gate residence. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Crews repair a hydro pole, knocked over early Monday morning near Henderson Highway and Roosevelt Place, shortly after a 'heated exchange' between two drivers, police said. B_01_Dec-22-20_FP_01.indd B1 2020-12-21 10:27 PM ;