Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 18, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba TUESDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2025 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM SECTION B CONNECT WITH WINNIPEG’S NO. 1 NEWS SOURCE ▼ CITY ● BUSINESS Sexsomnia argument rejected by judge The sexsomnia argument didn’t cut it. A Manitoba judge wouldn’t accept that Clinton Muskego was suffering from the rare disorder — which in- volves engaging in sexual behaviour while asleep — when he sexually as- saulted the 11-year-old grandson of a longtime friend after a night of heavy drinking and cannabis use. The sexsomnia defence is rarely used in Canadian criminal cases. In the first Manitoba case where the defence was used, a man was found not criminally responsible in 2013 for raping his wife many times over four years. A judge concluded the evidence showed the ac- cused had no control over his actions. Muskego, now in his early 30s, was charged with sexual assault and sexual interference after the incident in a Win- nipeg apartment, which was being rent- ed by a family member of the victim’s grandmother, on Oct. 22, 2020. The grandmother and the boy were visiting the city. They were from the same northern community where Mus- kego grew up. Court was told the boy awoke to Mus- kego breathing on him, with his eyes closed, as he touched his genitals and hugged him. The two were sleeping on separate mattresses in the apartment living room. Muskego asserted that he had no memory of the incident and that he was asleep at the time. Muskego’s lawyer, Kathy Bueti, had raised expert medical evidence that the man suffers from the uncommon disorder and should have been found not guilty. However, provincial court Judge Mary Kate Harvie convicted Muskego. “Taking into account all of the fore- going, I do not accept the evidence of Dr. (Collin) Shapiro that the accused was in a parasomnia state at the time of this incident and that this was a ‘sex- somnia’ act,” Harvie said in a Feb. 7 written decision. “While he may suffer from some form of sleep-related disor- der, that does not explain his actions on the night in question.” Bueti had called Shapiro, a University of Toronto professor of psychiatry and ophthalmology and a sleep specialist, to testify. Muskego attended a clinic Shap- iro runs for an assessment. He testified that Muskego had been diagnosed with narcolepsy. Crown prosecutor Danielle Simard, who accepted Shapiro’s qualifications, argued the evidence was inconclusive and that the conclusions were equally consistent with Muskego being intoxi- cated and “acting out after an evening of alcohol and drug consumption.” Muskego testified that he’d had sleep problems since he was a child, includ- ing what he described as night terrors and that his father had a history of sleepwalking. Harvie noted Muskego was inter- viewed by another psychiatrist, Dr. Eric Johnson, three times, initially for a court-ordered assessment, and there were significant discrepancies between what he said about his sleep issues over the sessions, to Shapiro, and the grand- mother’s testimony that he did not have any sleep issues when he lived with her. The judge said she had “significant concerns” about the information given to Shapiro and therefore, his conclu- sions. Muskego had consumed a “signifi- cant amount” of cannabis throughout the day of the incident and drank three litres of wine and some beer, before go- ing to sleep on a mattress on the floor of the living room, about five or six feet from a mattress where the boy slept. Muskego testified he was unsure about when he went to sleep because he was blacking out. He said it was after midnight, while the grandmother testi- fied she recalled waking up and telling Muskego and the boy to sleep at around 4 a.m. Muskego met the grandmother when he was a youth. She worked at an ad- dictions treatment centre in Norway House when he was treated there. He has known the boy since he was born. The grandmother said that Muskego “was like one of my children” and that he would often babysit and help around the house, where he had lived on occa- sion. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca ERIC PINDERA PLAYERS GONNA PLAY Hunter (above right) gets involved in the action during Sleepy The Clown’s performance at GameFest at the RBC Convention Centre this weekend, where a group from the Sikaran Arnis Academy (right) also gave a dem- onstration of the Filipino martial art. Along with live music and perform- ances, the three-day event featured a variety of individual and family/team games, giant inflatables and a local market all cen- tred around the joy of play. Canadian pride on full display Residents salute National Flag Day with an extra dose of patriotism R ED, white and patriotic all over. Saturday marked National Flag of Canada Day and the 60th anni- versary of the Canadian flag and some Winnipeggers had their national pride on full display. Residents streamed in and out of the Corydon Community Centre Saturday afternoon to try to get their hands on a Canadian flag at a giveaway put on by Coun. John Orlikow. The 100 flags Orlikow (River Heights- Fort Garry) purchased were gone with- in 10 minutes. “(Residents) just felt very happy that they could be together, sharing this mo- ment together and being able to cele- brate Canada,” he said. Mindy Lowe was hoping to get her hands on a large flag to display in her home. One is proudly hung at her cot- tage and, given the current political cli- mate, she wanted a second. “I think the more patriotism, the more unified our country is, I think the better we’re gonna do in the long run against you-know-who,” she said. The new-found sense of patriotism among many Canadians comes in the wake of threats against the nation’s sovereignty from U.S. President Don- ald Trump. Trump has repeatedly suggested Canada should become the 51st state and referred to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau.” Referring to the 47th president as “Mango Mussolini,” Lowe is worried Trump’s politics are creeping north of the border; she recently saw a truck on the highway with decals both say- ing “No child left behind” and “Make America Great Again.” “How can you stand for both?” she said. Orlikow and his assistant hunted down Canadian-made flags for the event, which proved to be difficult as many shelves were picked clean of red- and-white gear. He said the event was a way he could redirect his anger for what is occurring south of the border. “It makes me nauseous, pure and simple, it makes me angry. I’ve been a big globalist for a long time and to see that our most cherished partner is doing this to us in the way that they’re pulling us like this, it really makes me mad. But again, we have to step back and figure out how we’re going to go through this together,” he said. In a joint statement earlier this week, former prime ministers Jean Chrétien, Joe Clark, Kim Campbell, Paul Martin and Stephen Harper urged Canadians to wave the flag with pride on Flag Day. A Leger poll published this week found 85 per cent of Canadians said they feel proud to be Canadian amid threats from south of the border. While hundreds were celebrat- ing Francophone culture at Festival du Voyageur’s 56th event on Satur- day, some walked around the festival grounds in St. Boniface with small Can- adian flags to mark both occasions. While he wasn’t aware Flag Day was an annual observance until this year, Grant Lamarche dug up a handheld flag in his storage closet and brought it to have on hand throughout the day. Lamarche said the symbol is a small way he can support the country amid the president’s threat of 25 per cent tar- iffs on all Canadian products. “I think it’s something I’ll keep doing in the future,” he said. “The world is be- coming a bit of a scary place and I think we need something to rally around. This is an easy one to pick.” University of Manitoba political stud- ies adjunct Prof. Christopher Adams said the flag has gone through a meta- morphosis in Canadian culture in re- cent years, only for it to come back as the symbol of national pride. When the country reckoned with the discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools much of the coun- try stowed away the Canadian sym- bol in shame. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the flag was co-opted by the Freedom Convoy, fur- ther putting Canadians at odds with the maple leaf. It’s taken external pressures to unite the country with the flag as its symbol, Adams said. “Since being a little kid, I don’t remember anything like this; the flag suddenly is a thing that people rally around,” he said. His last memory of such outward patriotism was the 1995 Quebec refer- endum when non-Quebec Canadians poured into the French province and begged voters not to separate. Hyper-patriotism is usually reserved for Americans while Canadians are quieter about their national pride, Ad- ams said. “But now that we’ve got a president talking about (us) becoming the 51st state and all that nonsense, I think outside pressures have suddenly made Canadians think about the value of their country,” he said. “It seems that when you have outside pressures that threaten the well-being or the very core of our existence as a country, that’s when Canadians sort of stand up and take notice.” Orlikow believes the patriotic streak seen across Canada will stick given Trump is just beginning his four-year presidential term, while Adams said he’ll be keeping an eye out for Canadians who take the flag and use it as a symbol for their own, more extreme agenda. “Strong patriotism and rallying around the flag and all that sometimes it has a dark side to it,” he said. “Canadians are sometimes suspi- cious about being overly enthusiastic about rallying around national sym- bols because we do notice sometimes it takes the wrong turn.” nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca NICOLE BUFFIE PHOTOS BY JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS ;