Victim Of Police Racial Profiling Compensated, Northern B.C. Killings, World's Happiest Countries

Ahmad Moujtahed

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LOCAL

A 42-year-old psychiatric rehab assistant is suing the city of Montreal and SPVM officers for an arrest that was the result of racial profiling.

Ashton Boodoo, a black man of West-Indian Trinidadian descent, was charged with four criminal offenses and one penal offense under the Highway Traffic Code in May of 2019. A video captured two Montreal police officers standing outside Boodoo’s car moments after one of them smashed his driver-side window. The video also showed one of the police officers spraying Boodoo in the face three times with pepper spray. Boodoo was then detained for six hours. 

Recently, a Montreal municipal court judge ruled that the evidence for the imapired driving charge was “practically non-existent”. He added that Boodoo’s subsequent detention was “unnecessary, abusive and illegal.”

The amount of damages being claimed against the City of Montreal and its police employees is roughly $93,000. Besides the damages, the suit also seeks to have the SPVM ordered to provide better training for officers to prevent future instances of racial profiling.

NATIONAL 

SGT Janelle Shoihet: “The RCMP are now considering Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky as suspects in the Dease Lake suspicious death and the double homicide of Lucas Fowler and Chynna Dease. We’re asking for the public if you spot Bryer or Kam, consider them dangerous. Do not approach. Take no action and call immediately 911.”

This was SGT Janelle Shoihet from the RCMP providing the latest updates on the northern B.C. killings. 

On July 15 near Liard Hot Springs, the bodies of 24-year-old American Chynna Deese and her 23-year-old Australian boyfriend Lucas Fowler were found. Police revealed they had been shot.

The two suspects, linked to another homicide in Dease Lake, have now left B.C. and have been travelling in northern Saskatchewan in a grey 2011 Toyota Rav 4.

INTERNATIONAL

According to the latest World Happiness Report, Finland is the happiest country in the world for a second year in a row. Canada came in 9th place.

The World Happiness Report was released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations. It ranks countries on six key variables that support wellbeing: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support and generosity.

Not only native-born residents are taken into account, but also immigrants. The rankings of the world's happiest countries came from an analysis of data from surveys in 156 countries.