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Key federal agencies ill-equipped to fight growing cybercrime threat, auditor finds

By: Jim Bronskill

OTTAWA (CP) – Three key agencies lacked the “capacity and tools” to effectively protect Canadians from cyberattacks and tackle the growing threat of online crime, the federal spending watchdog has found.

In a report Tuesday, Auditor General Karen Hogan describes breakdowns in response, co-ordination, enforcement, tracking, and analysis between and across the organizations.

Hogan’s review looked at the RCMP, the Communications Security Establishment cyberspy agency and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

She found people were left to figure out where to make a cybercrime report, and might even have been asked to report the same incident to another organization.

For instance, after learning of an offer to sell child sexual exploitation material, the CRTC did not refer the matter to law enforcement but rather told the complainant to contact police directly. 

The auditor also says the RCMP has struggled to staff its cybercrime investigative teams, with almost one-third of positions vacant as of January.

In 2022, victims of fraud reported a total of $531 million in financial losses to the RCMP’s Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, the report notes. Three quarters of these reports involved cybercrime.

However, only five to 10 percent of cyber crimes are reported. “Without prompt action, financial and personal information losses will only grow as the volume of cybercrime and attacks continues to increase.”

The report says effectively addressing cybercrime depends on reports going to the organizations best equipped to receive them. While the RCMP, the CSE and Public Safety Canada have pondered a single point for Canadians to report cybercrime, “this has yet to be implemented.”

Between 2021 and 2023, the CSE deemed that almost half of the 10,850 reports it received were out of its mandate because they related to individual Canadians and not to organizations, Hogan found. “However, it did not respond to many of these individuals to inform them to report their situation to another authority.”

The report says the RCMP and CSE were often well co-ordinated in their responses to potential high-priority cases, such as attacks on government systems or critical infrastructure.

In addition, the RCMP, through its National Cyber Crime Co-ordination Centre, forged partnerships with Canadian and international enforcement agencies to understand the needs of these agencies and align efforts.


Winnipeg murder trial hears killer hospitalized numerous times for mental health

WINNIPEG (CP) – A Winnipeg murder trial has heard an admitted serial killer has a history of mental illness, including depression and thoughts of suicide.

Court heard Jeremy Skibicki, who is 37, was first assessed in his early teens after his parents reported aggressive outbursts and an incident where Skibicki put his hands around his female cousin’s throat while sleepwalking. 

Skibicki has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the deaths of four Indigenous women in Winnipeg in 2022.

His lawyers admit he killed the women but argue he should be found not criminally responsible due to mental illness.

Dr. Sohom Das, a forensic psychiatrist from England, said he assessed Skibicki twice since Skibicki’s arrest and studied his medical files and social media posts. 

Das testified medical documents provided to him show Skibicki had been hospitalized numerous times where Skibicki reported paranoia, hearing voices and self-harm. 

Skibicki is charged in the deaths of Rebecca Contois, 24; Morgan Harris, 39; Marcedes Myran, 26; and an unidentified woman an Indigenous grassroots community has named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.

Crown prosecutors have said the killings were racially motivated and Skibicki preyed on vulnerable victims at homeless shelters. 

The trial has heard Skibicki assaulted his victims, strangled or drowned them and disposed of their bodies in garbage bins in his neighbourhood. Myran and Contois were dismembered. 

The Crown has presented video, DNA, computer and witness evidence linking Skibicki to the victims to illustrate possible planning and coverup of the crimes.


‘A slap in the face’: B.C. mayors decry being rejected for federal disaster relief

By: Ashley Joannou

B.C. (CP) – The mayors of three British Columbia communities devastated by flooding in November 2021 are calling for changes in how the federal government dispenses disaster relief after their applications were denied.

The mayors of Merritt, Princeton and Abbotsford want the rejections reconsidered and say they received no details about why their requests to the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund failed, other than being told their lengthy applications were missing information.

“To find that our application was denied, that the City of Abbotsford won’t be receiving the funding support that we need to protect our community from a future flood disaster, that is brutally devastating news,” Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens said at a joint news conference Monday.

“We feel completely abandoned by our federal government. And after hearing that Merritt and Princeton’s applications were also denied, we are dumbfounded as to why the federal government has chosen to abandon our communities, our region and our province.” 

Siemens said it is a “disrespect for due process” that no community impacted by the 2021 flooding was successful.

He said without federal support the communities “lie in wait of the next flooding disaster.”

The 2021 flooding, the most costly weather event in provincial history, was triggered by a series of atmospheric rivers that brought days of drenching rain.

Five people were killed in a landslide; thousands were forced from their homes; farmland, buildings and homes were swamped; and the floodwaters tore out roads, bridges and other structures. 

Merritt Mayor Michael Goetz said his community is in desperate need of new dikes, and some areas are unprotected from future flooding. 

“To be rejected like this, with very little explanation of why it happened, it’s an absolute slap in the face of Western civilization. I have to wonder if this would happen if we were on the East Coast, I’m not really sure it would have.”

Princeton Mayor Spencer Coyne says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the communities he had their backs but it no longer feels that way, with his community continuing to rely on temporary dikes.


B.C. First Nation prepares for potential school site excavation, signs protocol deal

WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. (CP) – The Williams Lake First Nation is preparing for the potential excavation of the site of a former residential school where it believes human remains may be located and has signed an agreement with the province and RCMP to help guide the sensitive process.

The Ministry of Indigenous Relations said Monday that the memorandum of understanding was the first of its kind in B.C. and sets out the process used for potential recovery, identification and repatriation of remains linked to the St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School. 

Chief Willie Sellars of Williams Lake First Nation said it had not been decided that a dig would take place, but the agreement needed to be put in place in case the work moved forward.

Signing the memorandum was an “emotional and exciting day” after years of conversations with elders and survivors.

“I feel accomplished that progress is being made,” said Sellars.

The agreement would help “get us closer to finding out that truth, righting historical wrongs, getting to a place of proper healing for not just our community but all the communities that are impacted by that school,” said Sellars in an interview on Monday.

Sellars said the memorandum ensures the Williams Lake First Nation would continue to lead the process.

He said in a news release from the ministry that the agreement “provides the clarity we need in relation to future investigative activities and ensures the careful, culturally sensitive and respectful treatment of any human remains that might be recovered.”


B.C. school district investigates exam asking pupils to argue if Israel should exist

BURNABY, B.C. (CP) –The school district in Burnaby, B.C., has launched an investigation into what it says was a harmful exam that asked students to make arguments about whether Jewish people deserve or need a homeland. 

The question was posed by a teacher to Grade 6 and 7 students in an elementary social studies exam. 

The district says in a statement that the question stated that “some believe that Jewish people deserve or need a homeland (Israel), while others believe that Israel should not exist.” 

District Supt. Karim Hachlaf says in the statement that regardless of the intention, the question is deeply concerning and could be trauma-inducing for students, especially Jewish children. 

The district says the family of one of the students raised the concern by sending an email to the district with the exam question. 

In addition to the investigation, the district says it will reach out to families in the classroom and the Jewish community to determine what additional supports are needed, and it will work with administrators to reinforce use of appropriate learning resources within its schools.


Pharmacare bill passes in the House of Commons, heads to the Senate

OTTAWA (CP) – The Liberals’ pharmacare bill is headed to the Senate after passing third reading in the House of Commons. 

The bill was the result of careful and lengthy negotiations between the Liberals and the New Democrats as a key element of their political pact to prevent an early election.

The legislation would see the federal government offer first-payer coverage of some contraceptive and diabetes medications, and sets the stage for a future full-fledged universal pharmacare program.

It’s not yet clear exactly what drugs will be covered, since they will be the subject of negotiations with provincial and territorial governments.

Once the bill is passed, Health Minister Mark Holland can begin those formal negotiations with provinces and territories to deliver the program, which is expected to cost $1.5 billion over five years. 

The goal is that Canadians will be able to access the contraceptive or diabetes drugs or supplies by showing their health card, whether they have insurance coverage or not.

Canadian Press

The Canadian Press is Canada’s independent national news agency.

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