Canadian Justice > Canada - Ground Zero for car thefts - Interpol

 

Interpol data confirms Canada is

‘ground zero’ for car thefts: experts

By Sean Previl  Global News

Posted July 10, 2024 2:07 pm

 Updated July 10, 2024 2:09 pm

 3 min read

As government, police and other stakeholders work to combat Canada’s auto theft crisis, a May report from Interpol says the country ranks among the top 10 countries in hits it has received in its database of stolen motor vehicles this year, with some calling it “ground zero.”

According to the agency, that ranking comes just three months after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police integrated the Canadian Police Information Centre’s stolen vehicle database with Interpol’s own. Prior to that integration, all entries on the database were submitted manually.

Since then, more than 1,500 vehicles stolen in Canada have been detected globally in just three months. In addition, the RCMP’s database has details on about 150,000 vehicles stolen in Canada and, since February, more than 200 have been identified weekly as law enforcement checks their information, typically at ports of entry.

“We’ve been calling this a national auto theft crisis for over a year now,” Liam McGuinty, vice-president strategy at the Insurance Bureau of Canada, told Global News.

In 2022 alone, more than 105,000 vehicles were stolen across Canada, according to IBC.

Those thefts cost money. IBC released a list of the costliest cities for auto theft in 2023, and Toronto sat on top for Ontario with a 561 per cent increase over the past five years, with about $371 million in claims.

McGuinty said auto theft claims amounted to $1.5 billion nationally last year.

The increase came from a “perfect storm” of the COVID-19 pandemic causing supply chain issues, in addition to problems involving availability and cost of vehicles.

2:12

Ontario police warn about high risk of carjackings, home invasions

“I think organized crime in Canada has found a way to successfully export cars to destination markets,” he said, noting Interpol also highlighted the Middle East and Africa.

Interpol said in May that stolen vehicles have become an “international criminal currency,” and car theft has become part of a “major revenue stream” for organized crime. The agency added, however, that global data sharing allows for better screening of vehicles at border points, identification trafficking routes and arrests of those involved.+

In a statement to Global News, the RCMP said that its CPIC database was accessible to foreign law enforcement, but integration with Interpol was needed due to lack of awareness.

“It is helping foreign police stop stolen Canadian cars and giving police everywhere leads to track down and disrupt the gangs responsible,” the RCMP wrote in an email.

2:11

$33.2M worth of stolen vehicles recovered, many at Port of Montreal: Peel police

A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc added that auto theft requires insurance companies, manufacturers, law enforcement and other stakeholders to identify solutions, with each partner having a role in prevention and recovery.

He forgot to mention Canada's Justice system which ensures that those arrested for car theft are back out on the streets to continue their business within hours. This is normal under Trudeau's policy of keeping criminals out of jails. Bail need to be much harder to get. Sentences need to be increased (I suggest doubling the sentence for each similar conviction). 

Elliott Silverstein, the director of government relations for Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) Insurance, told Global News while Canada is not alone in auto theft, the country is still in a tough spot.

“We are certainly a ground zero for vehicle theft around the world,” he said.

He, alongside Interpol, notes Canada has a collection of high-value vehicles that are enticing to auto thieves, such as sports-utility vehicles (SUVs) and crossovers.

Silverstein said governments and law enforcement have made efforts to deter theft — such as banning certain devices that could be used for theft — but more effort should be made. This includes car manufacturers working to make vehicles harder to steal and making it harder to get vehicles out of ports that are used.

“This is the equivalent in Canada on an annual basis of having a catastrophic incident like a flood or hurricane or wildfire, but it happening every single day of the year through the year with no end in sight,” Silverstein said.

However, McGuinty adds it will take a “whole of society approach” to solve the crisis because just tackling one area where it’s happening (the East Coast, for example) won’t be enough to stop it.

“If you clamp down on one pain point or one problem area, it’s a game of whack-a-mole. It will pop up somewhere else,” McGuinty said.

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Canadian Justice > Killer back on the streets after serving 2 years of an 8 year sentence; Federal Bill on Bail looks completely useless

..

Barbara Kentner has been failed again, says family after

murderer gets day parole in trailer-hitch death

First Nation victim's family says they weren't told man convicted 

in her Thunder Bay death was up for parole

Sarah Law · CBC News · Posted: Sep 19, 2023 1:00 AM PDT | 

A collage of photos of Barbara Kentner, who was 34 when she died months after being struck by a trailer hitch in Thunder Bay, Ont. (Jody Porter/CBC)

WARNING: This story contains disturbing details of violence against Indigenous women.

Melissa Kentner is angry.

The man convicted of manslaughter in the death of her sister, Barbara Kentner, has been released from prison on day parole after serving two years of an eight-year sentence.

"I was crying that day when I found out," Melissa said in an interview with CBC News. "I was having a [really] bad panic attack, like I thought I was going to have a heart attack."

Barbara, of Wabigoon Lake First Nation, died on July 4, 2017, in Thunder Bay, Ont., from medical complications, months after she was struck by a trailer hitch. She was 34 — a mother, a sister, a cousin and an aunt. Her death made national news in a country facing a crisis of violence against Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people.

Brayden Bushby, now 24, was sentenced in June 2021 to eight years in prison for Barbara's death. Due to time already served, that was reduced to seven years and 11 months.

So, it seems he spent only one month in prison before being convicted.

...Brayden Bushby was sentenced to an eight-year sentence for manslaughter after throwing a trailer hitch at Kentner's sister Barbara from a passing car.

This Aug. 10, Bushby was granted day parole, but was denied full parole, according to documents from the Parole Board of Canada.

He has been ordered:

Not to consume, purchase or possess alcohol.

Not to enter establishments where the primary source of income is derived from the sale or consumption of alcohol.

To have no direct or indirect contact with the victim's immediate family.

To follow the treatment plan/program arranged by his parole supervisor in the areas of substance abuse and emotions.

Before his day parole release, Bushby tried to appeal his sentence. Court of Appeal documents obtained by CBC News show his lawyers argued for either his manslaughter conviction to be withdrawn and replaced with a charge of aggravated assault, or for the court to order a retrial on the manslaughter charge.

However, the parole board documents indicate Bushby is no longer pursuing the appeal.

Melissa said nobody told her about Bushby's parole release and she learned about it through the neighbour of one of Bushby's relatives.

For much more on this story, please go to: Victim notification issues

The Canadian government is proposing a bill to make bail for repeat violent offenders more difficult. Good for them! But I have been waiting for 8 years for this government to legislate something, anything, that will benefit children who are being sexually abused. From what I can see, this bill doesn't address this issue at all except possibly in very extreme cases. Trudeau has avoided the subject for his entire time in office.

B.C. attorney general hails federal bail bill restricting release

of violent offenders as it goes to Senate

Passing of C-48 in Commons a step toward safer communities, Niki Sharma says

Chad Pawson · CBC News · Posted: Sep 19, 2023 11:45 AM PDT | 

Niki Sharma pictured being sworn in as B.C. attorney general on Dec. 7, 2022. (Mike McArthur/CBC News)

British Columbia's attorney general says the passing of a bill that places a "reverse onus" on offenders to be released on bail is "one step closer" to meaningful reform intended to increase community safety.

Bill C-48 passed its third reading in the House of Commons on Monday, the day parliamentarians returned for the fall session, and will now go for review to the Senate.

Provinces including B.C., as well as law enforcement and advocates have been pressuring Ottawa over bail reform for more than a year, following crimes where suspects or those charged had a history of violence but were out on bail.

"Today we moved one step closer to ensuring safer communities across Canada, including here in B.C.," said Attorney General Niki Sharma in a statement from her office.

Bill C-48 would amend the Criminal Code so that those charged with a serious violent offence involving a weapon — one with a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment — who were convicted of a similar offence within the last five years will face a reverse onus to get bail.

So, if they were sentenced to 10 years or more in jail for the first crime, they couldn't possibly qualify as being convicted of a similar offence in the last 5 years. 

How many people would this bill have affected if it had been applied 5 years ago?

This means the accused has to show why they should be released instead of the prosecution having to prove that they should remain behind bars.

The law expands the use of reverse onus for firearm and intimate partner violence offences, and allows courts to take into consideration community safety and an accused's history of violence when making a bail decision.

Does that mean that they don't normally consider community safety in their decisions?  I've always suspected that as it seemed apparent. 

Under the law, a person accused of a crime is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty. Granting them bail means they can remain out of jail while their case moves through the justice system — a process that can take many months.

As with the story above, Bushby appears to have spent only one month in cells before his conviction. This law wouldn't change that because he had no previous conviction/sentence of 10 years or more.

Under the Criminal Code, a person has the right to a bail hearing within 24 hours of their arrest if a judge or justice of the peace is available, or as soon as possible once someone become available.

If they are denied bail, they will remain in custody. The financial cost of keeping an accused person in jail is far greater than the cost of supervising them in the community while they await trial.

In changing bail reforms, federal regulators said they also had to balance keeping offenders in custody against previous legislative changes that tried to be sensitive to Indigenous or Black people, who are over-represented in the criminal justice system.

Is it possible that they are over-represented in the criminal system?

Not complete fix, critics say

But critics say Bill C-48 doesn't go far enough. 

South Surrey MLA Elenore Sturko, B.C. United critic for mental health and addictions, said it doesn't deal with smaller violations such as petty crimes like theft or street disorder.

Notice how "mental health and addictions" seem to always be paired together? There is no doubt that the extreme wave of mental health problems is related to two societal problems - drug use and child sexual abuse. Governments, both provincial and federal don't seem to be very interested in either topic.

"These will not touch those bail hearings because they don't fit within the new categories," said Sturko, who is a former Mountie.

Sturko also said while it waits on federal bail reform Premier David Eby's B.C. government could have been doing more to address "complex and overlapping mental-health and addictions crises," which are often the root causes of crime.

Angela Marie MacDougall, director of Battered Women's Support Services, said bail reform shouldn't be the first step in addressing intimate partner violence. 

"The vast majority of victims do not report to the police, they report to friends and family … to anti-violence organizations, and that's actually where the investment needs to be," she said.

B.C. government to open dedicated enforcement hubs targeting repeat violent offenders

Sharma said in her statement that she would continue to advocate for further changes, but did not define what those would be.

"The premier and I, along with the solicitor general and colleagues from across Canada, continue to push for federal action on bail reform," her statement said.

In the spring, the province said it would create hubs made up of police, dedicated prosecutors and probation officers to target repeat violent offenders across the province. 

The 12 hubs are part of the Repeat Violent Offending Intervention Initiative, which the province says focuses on targeted enforcement and enhanced investigation and monitoring.

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Bad Week for Billionaires as Some of World's Richest Tangle With the Law

Corruption is Everywhere

Certainly Among the World's Richest People

Jonathon Gatehouse · CBC News 

Premchai Karnasuta arrives at court to hear the verdict against him and three other suspects at Thong Pha Phum Provincial Court in Kanchanaburi province on Tuesday in a case involving poaching at a wildlife sanctuary. The case has fuelled outrage in a country fed up with impunity and corruption. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images)

It's rarely a bad time to be a billionaire.

In 2018, the world's richest people saw their collective fortunes grow by 12 per cent, or $2.5 billion US a day.

That's part of a long-term trend that has seen the planet's über-wealthy — the top one per cent — take home the equivalent of 27 cents of every dollar of global income growth over the past four decades, while the Earth's poorest 50 per cent got a 12-cent share.

In even starker terms, in 2016 the top 61 billionaires  had as much wealth as half of the world's population, some 3.8 billion people. And as the concentration of money rose in 2017, the number fell to 43, and then last year to just the top 26.

Yet all that wealth and power doesn't necessarily put them beyond the reach of the law.

Nirav Modi, an Indian diamond merchant worth $1.8 billion US, is currently sitting in a British jail cell after his arrest yesterday on charges of bank fraud regarding a $2 billion loan with Punjab state's National Bank.

Luxury jeweler Nirav Modi, left, and actress Naomi Watts attend a dinner to celebrate the opening of the first Nirav Modi boutique in the U.S. on Sept. 8, 2015, in New York. (Diane Bondareff/Associated Press)

The 48-year-old had fled India last June as police probed allegedly fraudulent letters of guarantee, but was spotted out and about in London's toney neighbourhoods by a newspaper reporter, then turned in by a sharp-eyed bank clerk.

Authorities in India have seized a number of properties and 11 luxury vehicles belonging to Modi, including a Porsche and a Rolls Royce, and are in the process of auctioning off a collection of 173 paintings.

He had offered to post a guarantee of $880,000 Cdn pending his extradition hearing, but the British court rejected his request for bail, with the judge noting dryly that she believed he "may have the means of escape."

Just across the Channel in France, two foreign billionaires are now facing prosecution.

Suleyman Kerimov, ranked as the world's 257th richest person with a fortune of $6.4 billion, has been indicted for tax fraud over the "suspicious" purchase of five lavish villas in the south of France.

Billionaire Suleyman Kerimov, a powerful Russian oil and metals magnate, watches a soccer match at Al Nasr Stadium in Dubai on Jan. 16, 2012. (Sergei Rasulov/AFP/Getty Images)

He had previously been on trial for money laundering in connection with the purchases, but the charges were dropped last summer. (Kerimov is also among the close to two dozen oligarchs facing U.S. sanctions over Russia's presumed interference in the 2016 presidential election.)

Now he is free on a 20-million euro ($30.26 million Cdn) bail.

The reopening of his case comes just a day after French authorities disclosed that they have arrested Belhassen Trabelsi, a Tunisian billionaire who fled Canada in 2016 to escape deportation to his homeland over accusations of corruption.

Belhassen Trabelsi sits outside the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board offices in Montreal on May 7, 2013. The elusive Tunisian billionaire disappeared from Canada as he was set to be deported to his homeland in 2016, but has resurfaced and is under arrest in France. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

The 56-year-old, who is the brother-in-law of former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, amassed a vast fortune, including hotels, banks, media companies and a major construction firm over his relative's 23 years of rule.

His wife and four children were granted asylum in Canada, and are believed to be living in Montreal.

Meanwhile, a Thai billionaire has been sentenced to 16 months in jail on poaching charges. Premchai Karnasuta, who owns one of the country's main construction firms, was arrested by rangers in a national park in February 2018, and found to be in possession of the carcasses of several protected animals including a Kalij pheasant, a barking deer and an endangered black leopard.

Thai billionaire construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta leaves The Thong Pha Phum Provincial Court in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, on Tuesday after being sentenced to 16 months in prison for possessing the carcass of an endangered Kajij pheasant and other rare animals. (Associated Press)

His driver and his cook, who were also arrested in the jungle, received lesser sentences.

Premchai is currently free on $17,000 Cdn bail pending an appeal.

And in the United States, Robert Kraft, the owner of the Superbowl champion New England Patriots, today rejected a plea deal that would have seen charges of receiving paid sexual acts in a Florida massage parlour dropped in exchange for a small fine and an admission of guilt.

Robert Kraft, CEO of the New England Patriots, attends the Super Bowl LIII Pregame at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Feb. 3 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

The 77-year-old Kraft is the world's 244th richest person, according to Forbes magazine, with an estimated net worth of $6.6 billion US.

It's not clear if Florida prosecutors have offered the same deal to John Childs, another Boston billionaire and major Republican donor, caught up in a related prostitution sting.

Forbes' latest billionaire ranking, released earlier this month,  lists 2,153 people with a net worth of at least $1 billion US.

Blogging - Becoming a Very Dangerous Sport in Bangladesh

Just a couple years ago it seemed that bloggers were completely free to say anything they want without repercussion. But the world is rapidly changing; it's becoming much more violent and much less tolerant of differing opinions.

Personally, I have received no threats in spite of writing some scathing articles, just some insults by those who think that everyone who disagrees with them must be evil. But there are many bloggers who are not so fortunate.

For instance, in the news today:

Four bloggers hacked to death this year in Bangladesh

Bangladeshi secular activists take part in a procession to protest against the
killing of blogger Niloy Chakrabarti. PHOTO: AFP

DHAKA: Nervous, pale and sleep deprived, Bangladesh blogger Shammi Haque describes living in constant fear after four of her colleagues were hacked to death this year by suspected extremists.

A social activist, feminist and atheist writer, Haque rarely ventures outside her home in the capital and receives 24-hour police protection, fearful of being next on the list of machete-wielding attackers.

“I cannot close my eyes without having sleeping pills. Even the noise of the window shutters scares me,” the 22-year-old university student told AFP recently in Dhaka.

Bangladesh’s bloggers and secular activists have been in hiding or fled the country since the murders — including that of Niloy Chakrabarti, a vocal critic of Islamic fundamentalism, in his home in August.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s secular government has vowed to hunt down the killers, following international outrage and accusations it failed to stop the attacks, wary of a political backlash from extremists.

A string of arrests have been made, and police this week charged five militants of banned extremist outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team over the murder of Washiqur Rahman, the first blogger killed in January.

Avijit Roy (Bengali: অভিজিৎ রায়; 12 September 1972 – 26 February 2015) was a Bangladeshi-American online activist, writer, blogger known for pioneering Bengali freethinkers’ weblog-forum, Mukto-Mona. Roy was a prominent advocate of free expression in Bangladesh, coordinating international protests against government censorship and imprisonment of bloggers. He founded Mukto-Mona, an Internet community for freethinkers, rationalists, skeptics, atheists, and humanists of mainly Bengali and other South Asian descent. He was hacked to death by machete-wielding assailants in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 26 February 2015; Islamic militant organization Ansarullah Bangla Team claimed responsibility for the attack. - Wikipedia

“At least 12 atheist bloggers have fled the country this year. And 70 bloggers have asked for assistance for migration as their lives are at stake,” said Berlin-based atheist blogger Asif Mohiuddin.

Mohiuddin left Bangladesh after surviving a machete attack in 2013. Police have accused several of Mohiuddin’s attackers, who were released on bail, of later murdering Chakrabarti.

“I am not sure whether the government is sincere in protecting the bloggers. If that was the case, these murderers could have never got bail and continued their killing spree,” said Mohiuddin.

Extremists have long clashed with young secular activists whom they consider infidels for criticising Islam on social media, some of them under pen names.

But the gruesome killings have shaken many in Bangladesh which prides itself on being a mainly moderate Muslim country.

How 'moderate' is Bangladesh when the government is concerned about alienating the 'extremists'. It seems the 'extremists' may account for a large segment of the Bangladeshi population.