Westman

Pat King, one of the most prominent figures of the 2022 "Freedom Convoy" in Ottawa, has been found guilty on five counts including mischief and disobeying a court order.

A jury deliberated for about an hour Friday before convicting two men on human smuggling charges in a case where a family from India froze to death in Manitoba while trying to walk across the Canada-U.S. border.

Steve Shand of Florida and Harshkumar Patel, an Indian national arrested in Chicago, were each found guilty on all four counts they faced related to bringing unauthorized people into the U.S., transporting them and profiting from it.

The following is the RCMP report to November 18th, 2024.  This reporting period, police responded to the following calls for service.

- 12 traffic violations

- 17 provincial statute (Mental Health Act, Fire Prevention Act, Coroner's Act, 911 Act)

- 23 common police activities (alarms, suspicious persons/vehicles, assistance to general public)

- 10 crimes against property 

- 9 other criminal code

- 11 crimes against person

- 0 traffic accidents

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

A prosecutor urged a jury Thursday to find two accused human smugglers guilty, saying the men cared more about money than people's safety and their actions led to the deaths of a family of four in a prairie blizzard.

"They knew they were risking people's lives," Michael McBride said in his closing arguments after three days of testimony in U.S. district court.

"To them, all of those people were nothing but dollar signs."

A senior official says the Canadian government is not aware of any evidence linking Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to alleged criminal activity perpetrated by Indian agents on Canadian soil.

Meta is refusing to publicly disclose information that could determine whether it is subject to the Online News Act despite blocking news from its platforms.

In a press conference on November 21st, the Manitoba government announced a new step in addressing crime in the Swan Valley region.  

2024 will go down as the year of canola disease.

That is according to Curtis Rempel, Vice President of Crop Production and Innovation with the Canola Council of Canada. Rempel says diseases were primarily root and lower stem. He notes this was partially due to the wet and cool conditions felt in large parts of the Prairies.

"For a lot of stubble-borne fungi, which are primarily disease-causing organisms, they are all fungal-related," explains Rempel. "The cool, damp conditions really allow the fungus to take off."

20 men's teams and 20 women's teams are competing in the 2024 DEKALB SuperSpiel which got underway Thursday morning at the Morris Curling Club.

Eunjung Kim of Korea who is seventh in the World Curling Team Ranking is in the women's field along with reigning Alberta champion Selena Sturmay of Edmonton, 2024 Manitoba finalist Beth Peterson, 2023 SuperSpiel finalist Serena Gray-Withers and Chelsea Carey who has is skipping Jennifer Jones' 2023 Manitoba championship team of Karlee Burgess, Emily Zacharias and Lauren Lenentine. 

Friday, November 22nd