York police issue hundreds of tickets for expired vehicle permits despite Ontario's COVID-19 policy



York Regional Police officers have issued hundreds of tickets for expired vehicle permits amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Ontario, despite the provincial government extending the period for which existing documents are valid.

The force told CBC Toronto that the tickets are given at the discretion of individual officers, and that drivers still have the option to fight them in court.

Nicholas Vereshack is now faced with that very decision. While he was driving on Sunday, Vereshack was stopped by a York officer.

"He told me he was pulling me over for a stop sign violation and came back and gave me two tickets," the 24-year-old says. "One for the stop sign and one for my licence plate sticker, which had expired in June."

Vereshack says he knew the government had extended the moratorium on issuing tickets for expired stickers but was initially too shaken to say anything. He took the tickets and continued on his way.

As recently as July 29, Service Ontario had reminded drivers of the government's policy through its Twitter account, saying simply, "Your licence plate sticker is still valid."

Ottawa police accused of ‘gaslighting’ assault victim in deleted tweets

The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) is being called out for “gaslighting” an assault victim who shared her story on Twitter.

Twitter user @somalidolly posted early Thursday morning that she had been assaulted, physically and sexually, by a man earlier that evening.

She said despite having a black eye and a split lip as a result of the altercation, officers responding to the scene Wednesday night dismissed her concerns, stating there were “two sides” to the conflict.

Drug case against 2 Edmonton men collapses

A drug case against two Edmonton men ended suddenly earlier this summer due to problems with the warrant police used to search a Yellowknife hotel room where they found just under 200 grams of crack cocaine.

Quintin Glasgow-Brownlow and Mahmoud Taliani were charged with possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking at the conclusion of the search in December 2017.

The two men challenged the validity of the search warrant, arguing police did not have enough information to justify a search warrant for that room.

During a hearing in February, the police admitted they were initially targeting the room across the hall, but added the second room in the search warrant after seeing some of the suspects enter and then leave that room.

"None of the police officers at the time believed that this was sufficient to establish grounds to include Room 114 in the search warrant and I agree with their assessment," noted N.W.T. Supreme Court Justice Shannon Smallwood in her written decision.

Smallwood said the warrant to search that room should not have been issued just because the suspects were seen entering and leaving the room.

"It established a link to Room 114, but I cannot conclude it established reasonable grounds to believe evidence would be found in Room 114."

The judge said the officer who prepared the application for a search warrant should have asked the investigating officers for more supporting information.

Smallwood said the breach of Taliani's and Glasgow-Brownlow's Charter right to not be subject to arbitrary searches was serious enough that the drugs seized should be excluded from the trial.

Without the drugs seized, the case against the men collapsed.

Solidarity march for Godfred Addai draws over 100 to downtown core



Protesters filled Calgary's downtown streets on Thursday in solidarity with Godfred Addai.

The 32-year-old Black Calgarian was dropped off far from his home in the dead of winter by a police constable and then beaten by another officer, which was caught on video, in 2013.

A recent documentary, Above The Law, brought Addai's case back into the spotlight.

One of the officers involved has since been convicted of an unrelated aggravated assault while the judge presiding over Addai's trial for assaulting a police officer rejected the other officer's version of events. Addai was found not guilty.

More than a hundred Calgarians protested Addai's case and called for change within the city's police force.

‘He was punched in the neck’: Alberta farm family recalls run-in with sheriffs at checkstop

Family of an 18-year-old farmer who they say was left bloodied after being dragged out of his tractor by Alberta Sheriffs performing a checkstop are raising money in an effort to have charges dropped.

Jeremia Leussink, 18, was travelling from one field to another on July 31 when he was stopped by Alberta Sheriffs performing a checkstop on Highway 2A near Didsbury.

Video footage shows five sheriffs surrounding Leussink's tractor and he is pulled out of the vehicle, which family says left him bloodied.

“He’s so down and roughed up and in a lot of shock about what happened,” said brother, Clinton Leussink.

“He was punched in the neck and the back and the head several times. We have footage of blood all over the tractor on the pavement.”

Clinton says his brother was getting impatient with a line of vehicles and drove into the ditch to enter his next field of work when sheriffs surrounded him, demanding he take a breathalyzer.

“He doesn’t drink, he’s never been involved in anything, he didn’t exactly know what a breathalyzer is,” he said.

Clinton say Leussink now faces several charges including resisting arrest and failing to take a breathalyzer.

The family's farm is near Sundre, covering 800 acres of their own land and thousands more through central Alberta through the brothers' business, Custom Farming Bro’s.

The family says they are wondering why such action was taken by the sheriffs who were conducting the checkstop.

they go into chase mode immediately.

That's kind of the problem. They aren't supposed to be acting like predators.