Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 24, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba WE ARE LAUNCHING OURNEWSUITEOF DIGITAL SOLUTIONS FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES TO GROW AND THRIVE IN THE NEW ECONOMY. Learn more: contact your representative or Free Press Advertising at 204.697.7164 BUSINESS Local Free Press Advertising has made an investment to significantly expand our service offerings to better support the local business ecosystem of Manitoba. FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2025 A8 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I CANADA Ontario premier to call snap election next week: sources T ORONTO — Premier Doug Ford plans to call a snap election next Wednesday and send Ontarians to the polls on Feb. 27, The Canadian Press has learned. Two senior government sources say Ford recently made the decision for the rare winter election after waffling for months. The Canadian Press is not naming them so they can speak candidly about internal government deliberations. The election had been set for June 2026, but Ford has said he needs a new mandate in order to deal with four years of a Donald Trump presidency in the United States. He all but confirmed an imminent election earlier Thursday. “I’m asking for a mandate from the people of Ontario to make sure that we protect them,” Ford said at an unrelated announcement. “I really feel we’re going to be in- vesting billions and billions of dollars to protect the people, to protect com- munities and protect businesses here, and there’s no more important group of people than the people of Ontario to give you a clear mandate to be able to invest into the people and businesses.” His Progressive Conservative party plans to hold a “super caucus” event on Saturday to talk about the tariffs and “what’s going on here in Ontario.” The sources say the event is about election preparation. Ford said he can be both premier of the province and campaign as leader of the Progressive Conservatives. He still plans to head to Washington, D.C., twice in February to “make our case” to U.S. lawmakers to avoid tariffs. Ford has said he expects Trump tar- iffs to hit Ontario particularly hard, specifically the auto sector. He said Ontario could lose upwards of 500,000 jobs should Trump follow through on his 25 per cent tariff threat. Opposition parties have said an early election is not necessary because they would support stimulus spending, and Ford — a premier with a majority gov- ernment — already has a mandate to protect Ontario’s interests. “Today, Doug Ford has chosen him- self over our province,” Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said in a social media post Thursday evening. “Recklessness over responsibil- ity. His own political career, over the countless Ontario workers at risk of losing their jobs at this time of record instability.” Prior to the looming trade war with the United States, the opposition parties were positioning housing and health care, particularly a shortage of family doctors, as two main campaign issues. Both are still likely to get a lot of atten- tion amid tariff talk. All parties have been preparing for the possibility of an early election since last spring. At the time, Ford was asked if he was speeding up the expansion of beer and wine sales to corner stores, at a cost of $225 million, in order to plan for an ear- ly vote. He refused to rule it out. Election speculation ramped up in the fall as Ford continued to duck ques- tions, at one point saying he would not hold one “this year,” meaning in 2024. He did not then provide a reason for leaving the door open to a 2025 contest. Opposition politicians suggested Ford was being opportunistic and wanted an election before a federal vote. Polls had Pierre Poilievre and his Conservative party well ahead and poised to crush Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government. Ontario has a long history of electing govern- ments of a different political stripe than the one in Ottawa. The opposition, led by NDP Leader Marit Stiles, the Liberals’ Crombie and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, also accused Ford of trying to get an election in before the conclusion of an RCMP probe into the government’s de- cision to open up parts of the protected Greenbelt to development. Ford had walked back the Green- belt plan, but it caused turmoil inter- nally, leading to the resignations of then-housing minister Steve Clark and his chief of staff. In the provincial government’s fall economic statement, Ford announced a $3-billion plan to send out $200 cheques in early 2025 to every Ontario taxpayer and their children. The premier framed it as a way to help Ontarians amid an ongoing affordability crisis, but the op- position said it was nothing more than a vote-buying scheme ahead of an elec- tion. — The Canadian Press LIAM CASEY AND ALLISON JONES CHRIS YOUNG / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Ontario Premier Doug Ford Ex-priest pleads guilty to indecent assaults of children in Nunavut IQALUIT, Nunavut — A Catholic priest’s sexual abuse of Inuit children decades ago in Igloolik, Nunavet, trans- formed a once friendly and trusting hamlet into a place marred by anger and addiction, court heard Thursday. Wails and shouts could be heard in the Iqaluit courtroom where Eric Dejaeger, 77, pleaded guilty to indecent assaults against six girls and one boy between 1978 and 1982. He had previously been convicted of dozens of offences against children and some adults. A woman, whose relatives were abused by Dejaeger and was in court to offer support, read a victim impact statement describing the harm done to the tight-knit community. “I grew up in Igloolik, in a beautiful environment (where) everybody knows everybody, greeting each other with smiles and laughter. There was much respect for each other in that commun- ity,” she said. “Today, that environment is gone … the once happy community is now filled with anger, disrespect, abuse and men- tal illness.” She called Dejaeger a “sick monster.” “I am not going to tell you to rot in hell, but I hope they throw you in a small room with vicious husky dogs and they rip you up alive.” Prosecutor Emma Baasch described each of the assaults in graphic detail in the Nunavut Court of Justice. She spoke of horrific sex acts and said some children were as young as four when the abuse began. One complainant de- scribed blacking out from the pain. In some cases, it began with the priest offering the children candy. Court heard Dejaeger took a girl on his lap and had her colour a picture of Jesus giving someone a flower. He then assaulted her. Of one victim, the prosecutor said, “Mr. Dejaeger told her she would go to hell if she said anything.” Baasch said Dejaeger told another girl “that Jesus would not accept her any more” if she told anyone what hap- pened. A woman who said the abuse started when she was six told court she would urinate on herself on purpose. The more it smelled, the safer she felt. “I would let it dry and do the same thing all over again. I refused to change my underwear and my pants,” she said. “I wanted revenge for the little girl he hurt. I wanted revenge because the little girl was scared. I don’t want re- venge anymore. “I’m 51 years old and I’m not a little girl any more and I’m not scared any more.” Others who delivered victim impact statements spoke of how they will no longer set foot in a Catholic Church or let their children do so. “I don’t like to go to church any more, even if it’s a special occasion,” one woman said in her victim impact state- ment. “I hate seeing new priests come to our community. I hate the smell of the incense that the Catholic Church uses.” She said she recently found her birth certificate and that she planned to burn it because she thinks Dejaeger may have baptized her. A picture of that woman when she was five was presented to the court as an exhibit, and pained wailing could be heard in the video conference of the court proceedings. “Look! I hope you recognize her,” a woman could be heard shouting. One woman told court it has taken a lot of counselling to realize what hap- pened wasn’t her fault. “For a very long time, I hated my body. For a long time, I had such a low self-esteem because you made me be- lieve I was dirty. You made me believe I was not worthy.” Some women described feeling un- easy receiving physical affection from boyfriends or husbands. People also told court how they use drugs and al- cohol to ease the pain. They also said they’re afraid of dogs because Dejae- ger had one. A man who was four when he was abused by Dejaeger during confession told court he has struggled with alco- holism and post-traumatic stress disor- der and has had a hard time keeping a job and trusting people. RCMP announced in June 2023 that Dejaeger had been arrested on a Can- ada-wide warrant in Kingston, Ont., where he had been living. They said the charges stemmed from investigations conducted between 2011 and 2015. Dejaeger was previously convicted of committing numerous sexual offences while working as an Oblate missionary. Dejaeger served part of a five-year sentence, beginning in 1990, for sexual crimes against children in Baker Lake, Nunavet, committed between 1982 and 1989. In 2015, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for 32 crimes against Inuit children and some adults between 1978 and 1982 in Igloolik. The offences in- cluded indecent assault, unlawful con- finement and bestiality. Later that year, he was also sentenced for historical sexual offences against children in Alberta, to be served con- currently with his sentence for the ear- lier Igloolik charges. He was given statutory release on May 19, 2022, after serving two-thirds of his sentence. The final victim to read her state- ment in court Thursday said she wants to reclaim her life. “I am not going to wish you ill will. I want to forgive you,” she told Dejaeger. “I am going to learn to accept that I am worthy and I matter.” The case is back in court today for sentencing arguments. — The Canadian Press ;