Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 24, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba TOP NEWS A3 FRIDAY JANUARY 24, 2025 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM Former Gilbert Plains CAO charged with fraud A MUNICIPALITY’S former chief ad- ministrative officer, already sued for allegedly stealing more than $500,000, has now been charged criminally. Amber Fisher, 40, was arrested by RCMP on Jan. 16. She had been under investigation by RCMP since 2022, af- ter the Municipality of Gilbert Plains made a fraud complaint. Municipal of- ficials learned last Friday po- lice would move ahead with char- ges against their former colleague, Gilbert Plains Reeve James Manchur said by phone Thursday. “We’ve been waiting for this announcement to be made, so we are happy that it finally came out,” Manchur said. “We are still not at the point where it has all totally ended. There is still the court date to wait for in March, and we’re hoping that will bring more closure for us.” RCMP said Fisher, who lives in the Rural Municipality of Grandview, has been charged with fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000 and use of proceeds knowing it was obtained by the com- mission of an offence. “It’s definitely a good milestone to get to, but it’s still got to go to court and get through that process,” Cst. Ricky Perkins, who works with the Manitoba RCMP’s cyber and financial crime unit, said of the charges. “In this case, with this being a small- er community and the amount of money we are talking about here, it’s quite im- pactful … I certainly hope it does send a message to prevent people from mak- ing (similar) decisions and going down that path,” Perkins said. Gilbert Plains is located 360 kilo- metres northwest of Winnipeg, with a population of about 1,600. The investigation involved numer- ous witness statements, along with ob- taining and reviewing extensive finan- cial records and other reports, RCMP said in a Thursday news release. Perkins noted investigators are still awaiting the results of outstanding production orders from financial in- stitutions that may provide additional evidence. Such court orders require a person or organization to provide documents, data and records to law enforcement. Gilbert Plains sent out a letter to residents explaining the situation in November 2022. Last year, a court ordered Fisher’s wages be garnished after Gilbert Plains successfully sued her in the Court of King’s Bench. The court issued a default judgment against her in November 2023, after she failed to mount a defence to the lawsuit. Fisher is accused in the court papers of making 33 electronic transfers of more than $15,000 from the municipal- ity’s account to her own over the course of about 11 months. The notice of garnishment was for $548,758.03. The judgment ordered Fisher to pay $525,000, plus annual in- terest of five per cent and costs. Fisher began working at the municip- ality in 2018 and was named its high- est-ranking bureaucrat in 2020. On July 28, 2021, Fusion Credit Union notified Gilbert Plains officials of “sub- stantial outflows” from the municipal- ity’s bank account to an account at an- other credit union in Fisher’s name, the statement of claim said. The municipality suspended Fisher on Aug. 3, 2021, as it investigated. She allegedly told the municipal council she was the victim of a “cyberattack” and officials began a fraud investigation. She was reinstated soon after and re- turned to work before being suspended again in May 2022. A report by accounting firm Meyers Norris Penny completed in late 2022 found Fisher had transferred about $532,000 from the municipality to her bank account. She was fired after the report was completed. Perkins said approximately $500,000 of the missing funds remain un- recovered. He could not elaborate on if, or how, the money may have been spent. The incident sparked change with- in the municipal office, with Manchur saying Gilbert Plains has since re- placed much of its administrative staff and enacted safeguards within the fi- nancial reporting process. The Manitoba Municipal Admin- istrators organization also created a new professional code of conduct for its members and set up a formal com- plaint process and enforcement policy in 2023. One member has been expelled since the policy was enacted: former RM of North Cypress—Langford CAO Trisha Dawn Fraser. Fraser, 36, was fired last year from her role as a top bureaucrat after she pleaded guilty to misappropriating mu- nicipal funds to replace $30,000 she’d stolen from the Carberry Curling Club while serving as its treasurer. Statements from the RM of Lake- shore, located about 50 kilometres east of Gilbert Plains, suggest a similar scandal involving municipal adminis- trators is brewing there. A news release — published Dec. 4 and signed by acting reeve Michael Brunen and interim chief administra- tive officer Robert Poirier — said the municipality placed its CAO and assist- ant CAO on an indefinite leave of ab- sence in October. The statement does not name either person involved. “For some time council was aware of serious administrative deficiencies within the office,” the statement said. “Further information in regard to all that has transpired during this difficult time will be released once known.” It said an accounting firm was hired to review “specific financial issues and areas of concern” and RCMP were con- tacted. RCMP did not confirm whether it had launched an investigation or laid char- ges. The RM of Lakeshore did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. The Manitoba Municipal Administra- tors released a statement the following day, noting the involved administrators were not members of the organization. Duane Nicol, former president of the group, said it has asked the provincial government to amend legislation and create a licensure body for municipal administrators. Under current laws, every municipal- ity must have a chief administrator, but the people in those positions are not re- quired to have any formal credentials. tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca TYLER SEARLE Amber Fisher Minister to press Canada’s case in looming tariff tête-à-tête Joly ready to bend Rubio’s ear O TTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minis- ter Mélanie Joly will press Can- ada’s case against damaging tar- iffs with the new U.S. secretary of state in Washington next week, after Trump repeated a demand Thursday for allies to vastly increase their military spend- ing. Trump is threatening to impose 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs on im- ports from Canada starting on Feb. 1. Joly said things are still in flux because Trump hasn’t confirmed his new com- merce secretary. “There will be lots of rhetoric,” Joly told reporters on Parliament Hill on Thursday. “We will hear a lot of different ver- sions coming from south of the border. We need to put our head down, we need to be united and we need to defend Can- adian jobs.” Joly spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for half an hour by phone Wednesday and will meet with him in person next week. She said Rubio is a “good interlocu- tor” and she’s had “constructive” dis- cussions with him, including when they met in December before his formal confirmation. “He understands that not only this will have an impact on Americans, but this will have an impact on how the U.S. engages in the world, and that will have an impact geopolitically,” she said in reference to the tariff threat. “I also talked about the importance of standing up against China together. And Rubio himself has been very hawk- ish against China.” Joly said she will meet with “other key Republican senators” during her fifth visit to the U.S. since last Nov- ember’s presidential election. She said Canada will participate in Trump’s planned review of trading practices. She called for unity on Canada’s trade strategy. The premiers of Alberta, Que- bec and Saskatchewan have pushed back on Ottawa for floating the idea of imposing dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs and cutting off energy exports. “Alberta jobs are important as On- tario jobs, as Quebec jobs. It’s not a competition,” Joly said. “We can all work together to make sure that, ultimately, we face together this existential threat against our econ- omy.” Also on Thursday, Trump repeated his previous calls for NATO military allies like Canada to spend five per cent of their GDP on defence — a target that no NATO country currently meets. In his speech to the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Trump also lamented the United States’ “tremen- dous deficit with Canada” in trade. “Canada has been very tough to deal with over the years, and it’s not fair,” he said, adding that the U.S. doesn’t need Canadian commodities. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau re- sponded by citing Ottawa’s planned increases to military spending and said Canada is a partner to the U.S. in an un- stable world. He said Trump’s vision for an eco- nomic boom in the U.S. will require “more of the things that Canada is al- ready sending” it, such as energy, min- erals and lumber — all of which Ottawa could block or make more expensive in response to U.S. tariffs. “Canada will have a strong, robust re- sponse, because we don’t want this, but we will respond if necessary,” Trudeau said. He said the point of Canada’s tar- iff strategy is “not to figure out how to manage these tariffs and live with them over the long term, but to figure out how to get them removed as quickly as possible.” — The Canadian Press DYLAN ROBERTSON JUSTIN TANG / THE CANADIAN PRESS Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says she’s had ‘constructive’ discussions with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the past. Store clerk nearly killed over stolen sports drink ‘Find a better path,’ judge tells shooter ERIK PINDERA A MANITOBA judge implored a 24-year-old man to find a better path in life as he sentenced him to 14 years for the attempted murder of a store clerk who had confronted him over a stolen bottle of Gatorade. “I can see that life has not always been fair to you or kind to you, but you’ve also made some terrible mis- takes, and you’ll now have to pay a very high price for that,” Court of King’s Bench Justice Theodor Bock told Dakota Bruyere last week. In September, he was convicted of attempted murder for the shooting of Depanshu Chumber at a Quickie Mart on Logan Avenue. “You still have a very long life to live and there are many good things that can come from that. I encour- age you to take every opportunity you can while you serve your sen- tence to make the most of that time,” the judge told Bruyere. “My sincere wish for you is that you find a better path in your life.” Bock accepted a joint recommen- dation from Crown prosecutor Car- rie Ritchot and defence lawyer Tom Rees that Bruyere be sentenced to 14 years, minus time served. Bruyere had gone into the shop on July 25, 2023, grabbed a Gatorade from a cooler and left without pay- ing. Chumber followed him outside to get money or retrieve the drink. That’s when Bruyere spun around, pulled out a sawed-off shotgun and fired a round point-blank into Chumber’s abdomen from two or three metres away. Security video showed Chumber clutching his abdomen as Bruyere began to run away, before returning to retrieve his drink and a piece of the gun that had fallen off. Bock said random violence such as that scares the community. “That shock and fear is corrosive, it eats away at the ties that bind us as friends and neighbours, makes us suspicious and scared of each other. It robs us all of the peaceful life we would wish for ourselves and for our friends and family,” Bock told court. Chumber called 911 himself after trying to hail down a passerby. He received treatment at the Health Sciences Centre for two weeks. Chumber told the Crown attor- ney he did not wish to make a for- mal statement to the court at last week’s hearing, but said he’s made a “full recovery.” He has a large scar across his belly and he’s been told he’ll be more susceptible to hernias. “It’s no exaggeration to say that he’s made a miraculous recovery,” Bock said about the victim, adding he was taken by his strength and resiliency. “He will bear the scars of this event, the physical scars, for the rest of his life, and I have no doubt that there are likewise emotional scars.” Bruyere, who was born in Win- nipeg but has treaty status with Sagkeeng First Nation, was taken into child welfare as an infant and spent his youth in group and foster homes. He was physically abused by an uncle. He has alcohol-related neuro- developmental disorder, which is a type of fetal alcohol spectrum dis- order, a Grade 8-level education and has never had a job. Bruyere, who began abusing substances at a young age, blamed his violent criminal be- haviour on methamphetamine use, court was told. Bock said Bruyere’s life bears the hallmarks of colonialism’s harms to Indigenous people. Bruyere is banned from owning weapons for life. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES The shooting happened at the Quickie Mart on Logan Avenue in July 2023. ;