All Posts Tagged With: "crime"
Gunshots at York University
No one injured
Toronto Police announced Monday that they’re investigating gunshots at York University. Police were called to 360 Assiniboine Rd. on Feb. 18 at 6:45 a.m. where a “projectile” had been shot through an apartment door. No one was injured. Police are reviewing security camera footage.
At least 41 arrests in Montreal protests
Thousands of students on strike
Photo of Nov. 2011 protest by shahk on Flickr.
Montreal police arrested 37 protesters early Friday morning after they broke into and vandalized a college, the CEGEP du Vieux-Montréal.
“These people may face charges of mischief, assault, and armed aggression against a police officer,” Montreal police spokesperson Daniel Lacoursière told CBC News.
The late-night vandalism came after four arrests and the release of pepper spray on Thursday as protesters blocked access to the Montreal stock exchange and a nearby hotel, reports 680 News.
Thousands of post-secondary students are striking in Quebec. They’re skipping classes in order to protest a tuition hike of $1,625 over five years that begins this fall.
Student arrested for pointing handgun
Banned from Medicine Hat College
Medicine Hat College has evicted a student from residence and banned him from campus after he pointed a handgun at several people at a campus residence on Saturday, reports radio station CJCY. Police say the banned student, who is in their custody, will be charged with several offenses.
Hardware stolen from University of Victoria turns up in mailbox
Strange apology inside
Some of the computer hardware stolen from the University of Victoria earlier this month was found by a postal worker in a letter box in Langford, B.C. Saanich Police say that all of the laptops and flash drives had been rendered inoperable, although a copy of the information was included, along with a note that police are calling “a strange twist.” CBC News reports that the note says the following: “The information in these bags was not copied, distributed or exploited” and “we want no part of everyday people living in fear that their personal information is being used against them to take [their] hard-earned money. Criminals are human before they were criminals.” The police are scratching their heads. “Whether it is simply altruism or regret on the part of the suspects or whether it is something more sinister, is unclear to investigators,” they wrote. The computer hardware contained the unencrypted banking information and the social insurance numbers of up to 13,000 current and former employees.
Another peeping tom reported at York University
Woman flees washroom
Footage of suspect (Toronto Police, Jan. 11)
A third woman has reported an apparent peeping tom lurking in a washroom at York University.
This comes two weeks after two similar incidents. Women reported seeing a man in a washroom stall at Curtis Lecture Hall on Jan. 9 and Jan. 10.
The latest incident occurred on Jan. 24 inside a washroom at the Stacy Lecture Hall. At 8:55 p.m., a woman says she noticed large shoes inside a stall that looked like they belonged to a man. She fled the washroom and activated a security alarm.
The suspect is described as a brown male aged 21 to 23. He’s about six feet tall, weighs about 185 pounds. He has a chinstrap beard and a square jaw. He was last seen wearing dark jeans, brown or dark-green shoes with beige soles, a dark-grey hoodie with a black jacket and was carrying a dark brown or black backpack. Those with any information are encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers.
Students find handgun in college classroom
25-year-old charged
Students in a classroom at Durham College in Oshawa, Ont. found a loaded .45 calibre handgun inside a backpack left behind by a fellow student just before noon on Tuesday, say Durham Regional Police. Later in the day, 25-year-old student Dominic Chong of Sullivan Drive in Ajax was charged with several weapons offences. The gun was previously reported stolen from Toronto.
Voyeur reported in washroom at York
Male suspect had phone in his hand
Security camera footage from Toronto Police
Toronto police are looking for a man after several women reported seeing a male lurking in washrooms at York University over the past week.
Police say that on Jan. 9, at 6:05 p.m. two women in a washroom stall at Curtis Lecture Hall noticed a man reach under the stall they were in, holding a cellular phone. The man then fled. The next day at 8:30 p.m., a different woman walked into a washroom at Curtis Hall and saw a man looking over a stall. He fled once more.
The suspect is described as brown skinned, aged 20 to 25 years old, 5’8″ to 5’9″ high with a thin face and chinstrap beard, dark eyes and black hair. He was last seen wearing a grey knitted sweater, blue jeans, grey shiny sneakers with two straps and a grey toque.
150 students are victims of identity fraud
Chinese couple made fake student cards
Canada has deported a Chinese couple who stole information from more than 150 Simon Fraser University students, CBC News reports. Siyuan Gu and Jing Wang pleaded guilty in December to using forged student ID cards to obtain U-Passes. They possessed a 500-page printout of information on SFU students that had been obtained by recording keystrokes, provincial court heard. U-Passes are highly valuable because they allow their 80,000 student users unlimited access to transit in Vancouver at a rate of just $30 per month. The regular price is $151 for a three-zone pass. Gu had spent nine years in Canada on an academic visa and Wang is listed as his wife. Earlier this year, TransLink, Vancouver’s transit authority, said that U-Pass fraud amounts to $15-million annually. In the past, much of that fraud was due to people registering for school, dropping out and then illegally re-selling selling their U-Passes on Craigslist.
Third student charged in Stanley Cup Riot
21-year-old appeared in apology blog
From YouTube video on Cacino apology site
The University of British Columbia student who is referenced in a lengthy online apology for her role in the Stanley Cup Riot was charged Monday.
This post, dated four days post-riot, apologizes to Burrard Acura, the Enspire Foundation and the UBC Rowing team for the actions of 21-year-old student Camille Cacino, who is now charged.
“The pants are being returned. I have made mistakes and I have learned from them,” reads the post. “I take full responsibility for my actions and understand that it is nobody else’s fault but mine.”
This video appears to show Cacino smiling as she and other rioters flee through a smashed store window with what appears to be stolen clothing.
Dustin Anderson of Burnaby, 21, was also charged Monday with taking part in a riot and assault.
In October, Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu suggested that 15,000 possible criminal acts had been identified in videos and photos of the riot that followed the Canucks’ loss to the Boston Bruins on June 15. Chu said that he anticipated 500 to 700 people may eventually be charged.
But progress has been slow. As of Dec. 19, the VPD had recommended that 80 individuals be charged with 215 crimes. So far, the crown has approved just 77 charges against 30 people.
At least two other UBC students are among the 30 charged. In December, Alexander Peepre was charged with assault and Jensen White was charged with mischief and participating in a riot.
The VPD maintains a website of security video footage of possible rioters here.
Ryerson warns students
Woman sexually assaulted by six men near campus
Ryerson University in Toronto has put up notices around campus seeking information after a woman was sexual assaulted near the downtown campus last week. Police say a 27-year-old woman was picked up on Yonge Street between Dundas and Gerrard on the evening of Jan. 3 by six men in a black minivan with tinted windows. She was driven to a house somewhere in the Yonge and Eglinton area, sexually assaulted and then released. Police haven’t said whether the woman got into the van voluntarily. Detailed descriptions of the six suspects are available here.
Doctoral student killed in Mexico
Mexican-born Canadian strangled and slashed
A 39-year-old student from the University of British Columbia was found last week stabbed and strangled with her hands tied behind her back and her jugular slashed, reports CBC News.
Ximena Osegueda, a Mexican-born Canadian, was working on her PhD in Hispanic studies while living in Huatulco, a tourist town close to the Pacific coast. Her body was found along with her partner Alejandro Alvarado’s body on a beach that’s known to be used to dump bodies of those killed by in organized criminals.
Osegueda taught French, Italian and Hispanic studies at UBC. Her family said there was no reason to suspect their daughter was involved in organized crime. They report no ransom call.
Updated on Jan. 6: The Winnipeg Free Press reports that local authorities believe robbery may have been the motive, as a vehicle was recovered in Oaxaca City, 410 kilometres north of Huatulco.
UBC police warn campus
“Numerous” sightings of flasher
The RCMP at the University of British Columbia are warning the public, particularly women, to be avoid jogging, walking or biking alone on or near the trails of Pacific Spirit Park near West 16th Avenue. Here’s why: ”On numerous occasions, women on the trails have complained of a male approaching them by exposing his genital area and masturbating as they went by. The male is described as Caucasian with a slim build and very tanned. He is believed to be approximately 5’7″ to 5’9″ and between the ages of 30 to 40 years old.”
Christmas thefts at York
20-year-old charged
Toronto Police have charged James Wentworth Sutcliffe, 20, with a series of thefts that culminated in an investigation on Christmas Day. Sutcliffe is accused of stealing from several units at York University’s Vanier Residence during November and December. Police are looking for victims to come forward, as they have unclaimed stolen property.
Former UPEI student jailed for fraud
Stole $4,200 from school
A former University of Prince Edward Island student was sentenced Tuesday to one week in jail for stealing $4,200, reports CBC News. Steven Mitchell Colp worked as a room booker for the school. After he graduated, he still had access to the computerized booking system and he used it to request fake refunds that were credited to his own card. Colp is now a graduate student in psychology at the University of Calgary. He wept in court as he apologized for his crime.
UBC students charged for Stanley Cup Rioting
One accused of assault
Photo by Elopde on Wikimedia Commons
Among the 25 suspected Stanley Cup rioters who were charged last week in Vancouver, at least two are University of British Columbia students.
Alexander Peepre, a 20-year-old political science student, is charged with the assault of Cameron Brown, a photographer who alleges he was struck from behind by Peepre while trying to put out a fire and after trying to capture some of the criminal acts on film. “I tried to get some clear shots of people that were causing the damage because I knew right away that that would be the best way to identify them afterward and send them off to the police,” Brown told The Ubyssey.
Jensen White, a UBC science student from Seattle, is charged with mischief and participating in a riot.
Continue reading UBC students charged for Stanley Cup Rioting
Student alleges hate crime at Seneca
School conducting review
A 22-year-old student at Seneca College in Toronto alleges he was the victim of a hate crime on campus, according to Xtra.ca. The police are calling it an “altercation that turned into a fight.” The student came to Canada with the help of the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees. He alleges that on Nov. 25 he was attacked by a male student he has classes with. He says the fellow student accused him of gawking, punched a nearby telephone booth, pulled his hood down over his face and then cut his throat, most likely with a ballpoint pen. During the attack he was called “faggot” and “bitch.” Tony Vella of the Toronto Police Service told Xtra that a 21-year-old man was arrested in connection with the incident, charged with one count of assualt with a weapon and then released. Seneca officials say they are “conducting a general review into the matter.”
Women warned at University of Windsor
Student reports man with his pants down
Police at the University of Windsor have posted notices on campus after two women reported encountering possible sexual predators this weekend. A woman reported she was followed home early Saturday morning on Sunset Avenue. The man who allegedly followed her is described as skinny, Hispanic and 21-years-old. The second woman reported that in the early hours of Sunday morning she saw a man with his pants down who was watching her through a window at Canterbury College. He is described as in his 30s or 40s with facial hair, according to CBC News.
RCMP won’t yet open inquiry at Prairie Bible Institute
Activist alleges 80+ cases of sexual abuse
The RCMP told CBC News on Sunday that they can’t investigate sexual abuse allegations at Prairie Bible Institute, a private college in Alberta, unless more alleged victims come forward to police.
Linda Fossen, a 53-year-old former student, was the first to make allegations of widespread abuse. On her personal website, the U.S. resident asks visitors to sign a petition for the “80+ survivors of Prairie Institute” and lists six stories from Jane and John Does who were allegedly victims of sexual abuse at the hands of men connected with PBI. No alleged victims are named.
Fossen wrote that she uncovered the abuse after releasing her book Straight from the Donkey’s Mouth, which is about her own abuse at the hands of her father and while studying at PBI. The book is available for free. Her newest book, Out of the Miry Clay: Freedom from Childhood Sexual Abuse, is available for $8.00 online. Fossen also runs the abuse-related charity, I am Whole, Inc.
Continue reading RCMP won’t yet open inquiry at Prairie Bible Institute
Drug dealer blames student debt
Gets house arrest instead of jail
A student pleaded guilty in a North Bay, Ont. court—and received house arrest—after he was caught with a hefty load of marijuana in his car, an estimated $47,000 worth. Jameson Fletcher’s lawyer argued that his client, a Laurentian University commerce student, was selling drugs to help lessen his $40,000 school debt load, reports the North Bay Nugget. Fletcher was given a punishment of six months served in the community when it’s common to receive jail-time, said the deciding judge, Justice Jean-Gilles Lebel. Despite the light sentence, Lebel noted that many young people carry student debt and most manage to pay it down without committing crimes.
Racist graffiti found on two campuses
Haters target Arabs
Members of the University of Windsor community are shocked by racist graffiti found in a washroom near the new multi-faith space. The space recently had sinks installed to accommodate Muslims who want to wash before prayers, reports the Windsor Star. The graffiti included anti-Arab and anti-South Asian wording, which campus Muslims felt targeted them.
This week, racist graffiti that targets people of Arab decent was found at Ryerson University too, reports The Eyeopener.
Other Canadian universities have dealt with racist graffiti, including slurs against Jewish and black students at York University in 2008, which resulted in a new Human Rights Officer position.
