RCMP plans new investigative team as part of cybercrime strategy
OTTAWA—The RCMP plans to set up a cybercrime team to investigate the most significant online threats to Canada’s reputation and economy.
The national police force says the Ottawa-based team will probe cyber-related criminal activity targeting the federal government, key business assets, and national critical infrastructure, such as power grids.
The initiative, to be fully in place by 2020, is a central feature of the RCMP’s cybercrime strategy released Dec. 3.
The RCMP wants to address the challenge of policing digital misdeeds when perpetrators—and the evidence needed to catch them—often prove elusive.
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson told a security conference last week that police exhibit rooms are stacked with digital devices—and the trick is finding ways to extract the valuable evidence on them.
Paulson noted that while the Internet is a marvellous place, it has a dark and dangerous side.
Canadian paying it forward to honour stranger who paid her grocery bill
CARLSBAD, Calif.—A Canadian woman is seeking to honour a man she only met once because he died a day after paying for her groceries in a California grocery store.
Jamie-Lynne Knighten says Matthew Jackson stepped up to pay her $200-bill on Nov. 10 after her credit cards were declined at the cash register.
She says she had money, but she forgot her debit card at home after a sleepless night taking care of her five-month-old son and her credit cards had a hold on them because of a recent trip home to Barrie, Ont.
She knew the man’s first name and where he worked—at the gym where she works out—and reached out a week later to thank him. That’s when she found out Jackson had died in a car crash about 24 hours after the two met at the store.
She then wrote a heartfelt post on Facebook explaining the stranger’s good deed and started a group, called Matthew’s Legacy, as a place to talk about random acts of kindness.
Their story has since gone viral with stories of kindness pouring in on the page from all over the world. And she has since struck up a friendship with Jackson’s mother and they are hoping to come up with something to promote kindness.
Canada needs strategy to combat influence of money in US politics: Ambassador
OTTAWA—Gary Doer, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., says this country needs to find a way to combat the influence of big money in American politics, which is getting in the way of the interests of both countries.
During a luncheon speech in Ottawa, Doer said Canadian officials have to come up with new strategies to counter the power, scope, and amounts of money spent in the U.S. on lobbying and presidential campaigns after years of giving the issue little attention.
He cited the millions spent over years to block a new crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., that he said is the most important piece of trade infrastructure between the two countries.
Doer also said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump should be taken seriously because his support hovers around 30 percent and his message is resonating with the party’s base.
Doer, whose time in Washington is set to end next year, said the Liberals will have to choose the best person for the job knowing the Republicans control Congress and the Democrats control the White House. Of course, he added, all that could change with the U.S. election in 2016.
Pickup trucks dominate most stolen list in Canada
TORONTO— The Insurance Bureau of Canada says pickup trucks represent the hottest vehicle for thieves.
The bureau says the Ford F-350 and F-250 models take up nine spots on its top 10 list of most frequently stolen vehicles. The other vehicle on the list is a Cadillac Escalade SUV.
They note that Canadian border guards are seeing shipping containers stocked with car and truck parts in an effort to fool inspectors, and that they have recovered more than $10 million in stolen vehicles at the ports this year.
Rick Dubin, vice-president of the bureau, says stolen vehicles were up one percent in 2014 across Canada, with the biggest jump coming from a 29-percent increase in thefts in British Columbia.
Alberta RCMP shoot suspect in triple homicide, charge him with murder
EDMONTON—RCMP shot a suspect wanted in a triple homicide west of Edmonton while trying to arrest him at a location close to where the bodies were found on the weekend.
Supt. Gary Steinke said Mickell Clayton Bailey, 19, of Edson, was transported to hospital with serious injuries.
“Efforts to arrest the armed suspect peacefully were not successful today and he was shot by police,” Steinke told a news conference Dec. 1 in Edmonton.
Mounties found the bodies of Roxanne Berube, 36, another female, and Daniel Miller on Nov. 29 in the home they shared near Edson, just over 200 kilometres west of Edmonton. A police spokesman said the victims suffered “obvious trauma.”
Police have not released the name of the second female, but friends and family on Facebook identified her as Berube’s teenage daughter. Steinke said they have yet to positively identify the girl.
Bailey has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder. Steinke said Bailey was known to at least one of the people who was killed.
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