All Posts Tagged With: "crime"
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.
Stabbing at McMaster University
Injured youths won’t help police
Hamilton Police aren’t getting any cooperation from the three young men who were stabbed outside McMaster University’s campus pub early on Saturday morning, reports the Hamilton Spectator. The three men include two 18-year-olds and one 19-year-old—all of them from outside Hamilton.
It’s reminiscent of an incident in September when four people went to hospital and at least two others were cut during a knife fight at a house party near McMaster University. None of those injured cooperated with police. They were also from out of town.
More than 100 thefts near U. of Western Ontario
Police warn students
Dennis Rivest by MyFanshawe on YouTube
Students in London, Ont. are being warned by police to secure their doors, windows, and patio doors due to an increased number of break-and-enters near student housing. Western News reports that more than 100 have occurred near the University of Western Ontario in recent months.
London Police officer Dennis Rivest held a press conference at Fanshawe College recently to offer more information. He called the thefts “crimes of opportunity” and believes that thieves may be walking from residence to residence, looking for easy ways to break in and steal electronics. He says students should not only secure their residences better, but should record serial numbers for computers, cameras, TVs and tablets.
Two separate attacks on females in Ontario
One woman grabbed, another kissed by strange man
Police in two Ontario cities are looking for male suspects after separate incidents involving university-aged females that occurred on or near campuses this week.
The first happened at the University of Western Ontario at 6:40 a.m. on Wednesday. After a female left her vehicle and walked to work near the TD Waterhouse Stadium, she was grabbed from behind by an unknown male who is described as white and aged 25 to 35 with a thin build and a stud or ring in his lower lip. He was wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt under a black leather jacket and black jeans, reports the London Police Service.
The second incident involved a 21-year-old woman near the Wilfrid Laurier University and University of Waterloo campuses on Thursday around 3:30 p.m. A man unknown to the woman hugged and kissed her on the cheek before letting her go. Waterloo police told the Waterloo Record that the man is described as dark-skinned and short in height with a large belly and short dark hair. He was wearing a red sweater or jacket and jeans.
Knife fight injures six near McMaster
Party-goers came from club outlawed by McMaster
Four people went to hospital and at least two others were cut during a knife fight at a party near McMaster University. Police entered the party at 69 Mount Royal Ave. at 4:30 Friday morning.
Earlier in the night, police arrested two people at an event called ACADEMIX 101, which was taking place at Club 77 in downtown Hamilton. The event was advertised by Next Level Entertainment (NLE), which calls itself “McMaster’s official entertainment and talent group” on Facebook. Last year, McMaster University banned all events that take place at Club 77 from being advertised on its campus.*
Police entered Club 77 after hearing about fights inside. Two 20-year-old men, one from Brampton and the other from Mississauga, were arrested. Later, police contended with a crowd of roughly 400 people outside of the club. Some of those people ended up at the party on Royal Ave., police said.
No victim or witness has co-operated with police so far. The house has a smashed front door, a slashed window screen and metal bars from a railing on the front porch are bent or missing.
Next Level Entertainment’s Facebook page appears to be administered by Kisanath WooDz and Pratheeb K’mar. “AT MCMASTER STUDENT CENTER SELLING TICKETS,” WooDz posted to the page on Thursday around 4 p.m. Earlier in the day, someone listed as a student at York University, wrote that 900 tickets had been sold. Before that, someone else posted that “…the Waterloo/Laurier bus is officially SOLD OUT, only bus left is the York bus.”
*This story originally repeated an incorrect fact that the Hamilton Spectator had attributed to a McMaster spokesperson. Gord Arbeau of Community and Public Relations at McMaster clarified on Monday that Next Level Entertainment was not banned from campus. It was the promotion of events at Club 77 that McMaster University had banned. Maclean’s On Campus regrets the error.
Torched cars, house fires and gunshots linked to college
Staff and former students targeted
Shots have been fired and buildings and vehicles have been set ablaze in suburban Vancouver.
The incidents are believed to be related. Three of the victims are employees of the Justice Institute of British Columbia, two are former students and the other five have links to the school.
RCMP Chief Supt. Janice Armstrong told the Vancouver Sun that the attacks began in April and that in July, “an astute investigator recognized a link between seemingly unconnected criminal events occurring throughout the Lower Mainland.”
“Persons of interest” have been identified. Police are seeking more information from the public. None of the people affected is suspected by the RCMP of having connections to organized crime.
No current students are known to have been targeted and no one has been physically hurt.
JIBC trains future police officers, security officials, corrections officers, firefighters and more.
Teen drives drunk from UVic to police station
Woman was trying to bail out boyfriend
Photo courtesy of davisonscott15 on Flickr
Police in Saanich, B.C. arrested a 19-year-old for impaired driving after she drove to the police station to try and bail her under-aged boyfriend, reports the Times Colonist.
The 18-year-old boyfriend had been picked up at the University of Victoria on Sunday around 10 p.m., because he was slurring his speech and barely able to stand, police spokesman Sgt. Dean Jantzen said. The legal drinking age in B.C. is 19.
The girlfriend arrived at the police station half an hour after he was picked up. She told police she had taken a taxi there, but surveillance cameras revealed she had not. When she left, police followed her back to a vehicle where she was administered a breathalyzer test, which she failed. The car will been impounded for 90 days.
Possible fraud at York University
Forensic accounting report completed in May
York University announced Thursday that there is an investigation underway that is probing potential fraud that may have occurred at the university between 2007 and early 2010.
York hired forensic accounting firm Navigant in 2009. ”At the end of May 2011, York received Navigant’s report, which outlined a number of irregularities,” York said in a statement. “The University immediately handed over the relevant materials to the Toronto Police Service.”
“York will not comment on any specifics regarding this case,” they added.
Beware the rental scam
Kamloops student out $1,000 and has no place to live
Photo courtesy of nkeppol on Flickr
A Thompson Rivers University student is out nearly $1,000 after he was scammed online. He showed up at an apartment on Arrowstone Drive in Kamloops that he thought he’d rented, sight unseen, by sending his deposit in the mail earlier in the summer. The building manager had never heard of the person who he’d sent the cheque to. The 22-year-old student will now need to find a new home.
It’s common for fraudsters to pretend to be a landlord by posting online and then asking students to send a cheque or money order for an apartment that can’t be viewed. Often, the scammer says they’re out of town on business and that the student can drive by the place, but can only view photos of the interior. This type of scam was prevalent in Calgary in 2009.
In April, Waterloo police warned against a variation on the rental scam in which the student owns the property. Thieves will pretend to accidentally overpay for an apartment using a fake cheques. Then, they ask for the difference to be returned to them before the bank realizes the cheques are fakes.
SFU chemistry professor found dead
Man from Richmond, B.C. taken into custody
Police found a dead woman on Tuesday night that they have now confirmed to have been 37-year-old Simon Fraser University professor Melanie Alexis O’Neill, reports CBC News.
Police believe the death may have been a homicide but they have not yet determined the cause of death.
O’Neill was an associate professor of biological chemistry at Simon Fraser University. She was recently awarded tenure.
Police told CBC that a man who knew the owner of the home was taken into custody in Richmond, B.C.
Student pleads guilty to stabbing
Chinese citizen attacked fellow student at Memorial
A Chinese student taking English as a Second Language at Memorial University pleaded guilty to stabbing another student Tuesday in St. John’s, reports CBC News. Crown and defence lawyers jointly requested that Qiang Tang, 23, serve 12 months of house arrest, plus probation. Tang was arrested in March at Spencer Hall after the attack.
Law student gets year in jail for child porn
Collection of 70,000 images “shocking and horrible”
Man in Jail courtesy of Mr.Thomas on Flickr
A 27-year-old University of Saskatchewan law student will go to jail for one year after a judge reviewed some of the 70,000 “shocking and horrible” child pornography images found on USB sticks in his pocket at the Saskatoon Airport on May 31. Among the images were photos of men abusing infant girls and men having sex with animals.
Eran Michael Pinsky, who pleaded guilty, had already been charged with possession of one of the largest collections of child porn ever found in Canada in 2009. In fact, it was as a result of bail conditions following that charge that police knew he was planning to leave the city in May and decided to check up on him at the airport.
During his three-year probation, Pinsky will be not be allowed internet access outside of work, he will be required to abstain from all pornography, he will take sex offender treatment and his name will remain in the national sex offender registry for ten years.
Saskatchewan law student guilty of child porn
Faces one to two years in prison
A 27-year-old law student from the University of Saskatchewan pleaded guilty in provincial court Tuesday to possession of 70,000 pieces of child pornography, including photos of men abusing girls as young as two-years-old, reports the Star Phoenix newspaper. A city police officer testified that he found the images on Eran Michael Pinsky’s backpack at the Saskatoon airport on May 31.
It’s at least his second alleged offense. More than onne year ago, he was charged with possessing and making illegal material available to others over the Internet — a charge that he has pleaded not guilty to. The case has not yet been to trial.
But it was bail conditions related to those charges that helped officials catch him the second time. He was forbidden from using any device with internet access or from leaving the city without permission. It was when he was on his way home to his parents house in Vancouver last month that he was met at the airport by a police investigator who wanted to check his laptop for anything illegal. The officer found four USB flash drives in his pocket that included the 70,000 pieces of pornography, Crown Prosecutor Mike Segu told the court.
Pinsky’s lawyer said that his client admits he has a problem and has been seeing a doctor.
Segu has asked for 12 to 24 months in prison. Sentencing has been reserved until July 4th.
Two people stabbed at Saint Mary’s
Police still looking for the suspect
Two people were stabbed and taken to hospital Monday night at a Saint Mary’s University residence building. According to the Chronicle Herald, police arrived at the university around 10 p.m. following an altercation involving seven people that had turned physical, including one person who had used a knife. The victims injuries are said not to be life threatening and both have been released after being treated for their wounds. Police are still searching for the suspect who had pulled out a knife.
