Tourist Loses Both Hands While Allegedly Trying to Photograph Shark
Turks and Caicos Department of Environment and Coastal Resources said in a press release last week that a tourist had been injured by a shark on Friday, Feb. 7 off the coast of Providenciales, the main island of the Turks and Caicos archipelago.
"Further to the investigation, it has been determined that the tourist had attempted to engage with the animal from the shallows in an attempt to take photographs," the agency wrote.
Additional details surfaced in a GoFundMe campaign organized by the victim's brother-in-law over the weekend, which stated that the unnamed woman actually lost both hands in the attack. Though, it did not mention whether she had been taking photos at the time.
"While on what was supposed to be a relaxing vacation, my sister-in-law and her husband, my brother, lived what can only be described as a nightmare," the campaign stated. The woman was apparently wading in clear, hip-deep water when the shark bumped into her legs. However, after circling, the shark then bit her thigh.
"Not satisfied, the shark came back again and when she put both hands in front of her to protect herself, the shark cut off both of her hands, one at mid forearm and the other at the wrist," the campaigned explained. "Her husband, having rushed back to help, then managed to wrestle away the shark and stayed between her and the shark until she walked out of the water and collapsed on the beach."
First responders provided first aid on the beach before the woman was taken to a local hospital for treatment. However, she was then flown back to Canada by air ambulance to undergo further surgical procedures.
"This is something that has completely altered their life in the blink of an eye," added the brother of the woman's husband, who was an over 30-year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Following the incident, a beach closure was issued in the area where the woman was attacked through Sunday, Feb. 9, until it was determined that the shark had moved into deeper waters.
"The DECR would like to urge the public to always be aware of your surroundings, follow local advisories, and respect marine life," the press release advised. "Swim in designated areas, avoid murky waters, never swim alone, and do not attempt to feed marine wildlife under any circumstances."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
8 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Anatomy of an acquittal: How the Hockey Canada sexual assault case fell apart
Brett Howden wasn't supposed to have so many memory problems. One of the Crown's main witnesses at the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial, the Vegas Golden Knights centre really couldn't recall much about being in a room at the Delta Armouries hotel in the early hours of June 19, 2018, along with other members of the 2018 Canadian world junior championship team and a young woman Howden said was demanding to have sex with them. Appearing virtually in a London, Ont., courtroom from the United States wearing a hoodie in May, he testified he couldn't remember whether the woman was upset; he couldn't remember if world juniors team captain Dillon Dubé slapped her, or about sending a text to another player saying Dubé smacked the woman's buttocks so hard that it looked like it hurt; and he couldn't remember the woman getting dressed to leave but men persuading her to stay. The prosecution said that Howden's testimony had not proceeded 'as anticipated,' and found itself in the position of having to argue that his memory loss was not 'sincere,' but rather 'feigned.' The Crown was calling its own witness a liar. It was just one example of the struggles faced by Crown attorneys Meaghan Cunningham and Heather Donkers to prove their case during the eight-week, high-profile sexual assault trial of five former world juniors who went on to play in the NHL, which ended in acquittals delivered Thursday by Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia. In doing so, the judge completely rejected the testimony of the complainant, known to the public as E.M. due to a publication ban on her identity , finding her evidence was both not credible and unreliable . 'With respect to the charges before the court, having found that I cannot rely upon the evidence of E.M. and then considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts before me,' Carroccia told a packed courtroom as dozens of people supporting the complainant rallied outside the building. The case that captured the country's attention and sparked a reckoning about sexual misconduct in professional sports was always going to be a challenge to prove, not only because it's notoriously difficult to secure a conviction in a sexual assault case, but because as the prosecutors themselves said during the trial, the case was more 'nuanced' than what a person might think a sexual assault looks like. All five former players were found not guilty of all charges in the Hockey Canada trial, with the complainant's lawyer calling the judge's decision "devastating." E.M. never said no nor resisted, but testified she engaged in sexual activity with multiple players as a coping mechanism for being in a room full of men she didn't know; she maintained that she was not consenting. But Carroccia found as a fact based on the evidence that E.M. did consent, that she was expressing her willingness to engage in sexual activity with the men throughout the night, and that contrary to the Crown's arguments, there was no evidence that her consent had been 'vitiated' — invalidated — by her fear of being in the room. To understand how the players ended up being found not guilty means taking a look at the few new pieces of evidence London police collected after reopening the case in 2022 against Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé, and Cal Foote — a reopening the force itself acknowledged in court records was due to public pressure , and the fruits of which slowly began to u nravel both before and during the trial . It included a new written statement from E.M. outlining her allegations, one that she would later distance herself from in court as it contained errors that she blamed on her lawyers; a group chat from June 2018 that the Crown argued showed the players getting behind a false narrative about what happened in the hotel room, but the judge thought otherwise; statements that the accused players were compelled to give to a Hockey Canada investigation that were then tossed from the criminal case because of the 'unfair and prejudicial' way in which they were obtained; and then there was Howden and his memory problems, which meant that his text message about the Dubé slap, that the Crown said provided 'very critical corroboration' for E.M.'s testimony, was excluded from the trial because he couldn't even remember sending it. London police had originally investigated E.M.'s allegations in 2018, but declined to lay charges after an eight-month investigation , as the lead detective at the time doubted her claim that she was too intoxicated to consent based on her demeanour in surveillance footage. And he wondered in his report whether she had been an 'active participant.' But everything changed in the spring of 2022 when TSN reported that Hockey Canada had quickly settled, for an undisclosed sum, E.M.'s $3.5-million sexual assault lawsuit brought against the organization and eight unnamed John Doe players. The public backlash was fierce, as sponsors began to dump Hockey Canada and the organization's executives were called to testify before Parliament. London police was also feeling the heat. 'Given a resurgence in media attention, the London Police Service has reviewed this investigation with the aim of determining what other investigative means exist and whether reasonable grounds exist to charge any person,' London police officer David Younan wrote in 2022 in an application for a warrant to seize evidence. 'The media attention surrounding this event is significant.' Criminal defence lawyer Alison Craig, who is not involved in the case, wondered in an interview with the Star this month if the reopening was less about investigating whether a crime had been committed, and more about figuring out how to make criminal charges stick in the face of public outrage. 'Because not a whole lot changed between investigation number one and number two,' Craig said. ' The police should never be bowing to public pressure. It's a really slippery slope. If you start charging people as a result of public pressure, wrongful convictions and accused people's lives getting ruined are going to skyrocket.' At a packed news conference last year announcing the charges, London police chief Thai Truong apologized to E.M. for the time it had taken to get to that point; on Thursday, the chief said little about his force's investigation, other than noting in a statement that it had sparked important discussions about sexual violence. Crown attorneys have complete discretion over which charges laid by police — if any — should be prosecuted. In Ontario, they're required by policy to only prosecute if there's a reasonable prospect of conviction and it's in the public interest, but they don't have to publicly explain their reasoning. The test to prosecute is lower than in some other provinces — such as British Columbia, where a 'substantial likelihood of conviction' is required — and one that critics have argued in the past needs to be changed to filter out weaker cases from Ontario's backlogged justice system. 'The office of the Crown attorney knew what today's verdict was likely to be, and the evidence at trial came as no surprise to them or anyone with full knowledge of the investigation,' Hart's lawyer, Megan Savard, told reporters after Carroccia delivered her decision. As the Star first re ported in May , Cunningham, the province's lead sexual assault prosecutor as chair of the Crown office's sexual violence advisory group, had even warned E.M. in a meeting several weeks before charges were laid in 2024 that it was 'not a really, really strong case,' but that a conviction was possible. On Thursday, she told reporters that the success of a prosecution is 'not measured solely by whether there are guilty verdicts at the end,' saying the Crown always wanted to ensure there was a fair trial. 'Under the current policy, there was next to no chance that this case wouldn't proceed,' Michael Coristine, a former Crown attorney who now works as a criminal defence lawyer, told the Star this month. 'It's easy for defence lawyers and people who aren't in the Crown's shoes to say 'I would have pulled that case right away or never prosecuted it,' but that's not the reality that is being lived by these senior Crowns who do have these difficult decisions to make.' Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham, and the complainant E.M., testifying by CCTV, are seen in a courtroom sketch in London in May. E.M. met McLeod at Jack's Bar with some of his teammates while the world juniors were in London for a fundraising event; she agreed to go back to his room at the Delta Armouries where they had consensual sex, only for multiple players to show up afterward, some prompted by texts from McLeod about a '3 way.' Testifying in graphic d etail over nine days , E.M. said that the men placed a bedsheet on the floor and asked her to fondle herself, slapped and spat on her, obtained oral sex, and engaged in intercourse. She testified that her mind went on 'autopilot,' as she engaged in the sexual activity as a way of protecting herself while she was drunk and naked in a room full of strangers. The Crown alleged that McLeod had intercourse with E.M. a second time in the hotel room bathroom; that Formenton separately had intercourse with her in the bathroom; that McLeod, Hart, and Dubé obtained oral sex from her; that Dubé slapped her naked buttocks, and that Foote did the splits over her head and his genitals 'grazed' her face — all without her consent. During a marathon seven days of cross-examination by the defence, E.M. was confronted with the fact that the written statement she provided to police as part of their reopened investigation contained a number of errors. It failed to mention that she initiated physical contact with McLeod on the dance floor at Jack's, that she bought most of her own alcohol including a drink for McLeod, and kissed him. It also incorrectly stated she only learned later that he and his friends were hockey players, when she testified that she pieced together they were hockey players while at Jack's. The statement had originally been written for a separate Hockey Canada probe, and in her testimony E.M. blamed her civil lawyers who drafted it for the mistakes. 'I was able to review the final copy, but really it wasn't something that I was taking the charge on I guess,' she testified. That did not sit well with the judge. 'When confronted with inconsistencies between her evidence and her earlier statements, E.M. had a tendency to blame others,' Carroccia said. London police chose not to re-interview E.M. as part of their reopened probe. Lead detective Lyndsey Ryan testified that she believed the written statement 'did clarify some points,' and that a new interview would have been 're-traumatizing.' Despite not interviewing her, Ryan felt that the statement suggested E.M. had come to realize between 2018 and 2022 that she was not to blame for what happened in the room and that her 'acquiescence did not equal consent,' according to part of Ryan's report read in court. Michael McLeod films a selfie video with the complainant on the dance floor inside Jack's Bar. Ryan acknowledged on the stand it was 'possible' she would have re-interviewed E.M. had there been no new statement. Court records suggest it played an important role in the decision to lay charges. Younan quoted parts of it in his application for a warrant, saying E.M. 'most clearly expressed her subjective non-consent to any sexual activity' in the written statement. While police obtained surveillance footage in 2018 from Jack's Bar, they never looked at it; investigators did analyze some of it in 2022, and the Crown argued it bolstered E.M.'s claim that she was intoxicated because it showed how much alcohol she had consumed. But the defence used the footage to their advantage, pointing out that it showed E.M. buying most of her own drinks when she had said the men bought most of the alcohol. And while she testified that the men were trying to move her hands toward their crotches on the dancefloor, McLeod's lawyer David Humphrey pointed out the only instance caught on camera was E.M. appearing to touch McLeod's crotch without being directed . The footage ended up causing the judge to find E.M. unreliable, and that she 'exaggerated' her level of intoxication in her testimony. As one example, E.M. testified she appeared in one clip to be drunk because she was leaning on the bar. 'But a close examination of that portion of the recording seems to reveal that after ordering a shot for herself, E.M. looked at the change provided to her by the bartender, and she called her back because she had been short-changed,' Carroccia said, noting the bartender then returns to the cash register, removes a bill and gives it to E.M. 'That conduct seems to be inconsistent with her assertion that she was leaning on the bar because she was drunk.' Overall, the defence argued that E.M.'s 'terror narrative' of being scared in the room was something she and her lawyers cooked up in 2022 for her lawsuit, as she never told police in 2018 that she had been scared. 'They were all like 'no you f—- her, no you f—- her'...I don't know what they were getting at with that...I think I was just getting frustrated at that point, I'm like 'seriously guys,' ' E.M. told Det. Steve Newton during the first police investigation in 2018. 'I would get annoyed when like, when things weren't happening.' She told Newton that at first, 'I was liking the attention for a little bit,' but that as the night went on and the alcohol wore off, 'I was realizing what's happening, I was sobering up, like I would get up to the bathroom, I would start crying.' In court, she testified she was 'worried' when men made comments about 'putting golf balls in me, in my vagina, and asking if I could take the whole just sounded really kind of extreme and painful.' But in 2018 to London police, she referred to the men's golf ball comments as them 'joking' and 'just being stupid' and making fun of her. Carroccia pointed to E.M.'s words to the police in 2018 in her findings that there wasn't evidence to support the argument that E.M. was scared to be in the hotel room. Unlike defence lawyers, who typically meet a number of times with their clients, Crown attorneys have limited interactions with their witnesses prior to trial, and so may not always be aware of problems with their version of events until they come out in cross-examination, Coristine said. 'No witness is a perfect witness,' he said. Crown preparation meetings are typically limited to explaining to people what to expect once they take the stand. Coristine explained that any clarifications or entirely new details offered in those meetin gs by complainants would then have to be disclosed to the defence, who can use that information in cross-examination. 'The Crown has to rely on what the vic tim has already told the police,' he said. 'The Crown isn't typically looking to get new information.' The Crown described Howden in their closing arguments as a 'complicated witness.' One of only two players called by the prosecution who were in the room when some of the sexual activity happened, Howden either couldn't remember certain things he had told the police and Hockey Canada's investigation, or he gave answers on the stand that were inconsistent with what he had said in those other statements. Where he was helpful for the Crown was putting names to allegations, as E.M. couldn't identify most of the men in the room; Howden testified seeing Hart and McLeod receive oral sex from the woman at different times in the night, after she repeatedly demanded to have sex with players. He also remembered the woman 'taking' Formenton to the bathroom. Howden's testimony prompted Cunningham to ask for Carroccia's permission to cross-examine her own witness about his inconsistencies, but first she would need to convince the judge that Howden's memory loss was not genuine. 'It's the Crown's submission that Mr. Howden's memory loss is a feigned memory loss, not a sincere one,' Cunningham said in May. 'His memory loss, in my submission, is directly related to details that will be particularly damning for the defendants who are his former teammates and friends.' Howden 'seemingly had a very clear memory' of the complainant 'begging guys to do stuff, being flirtatious, being the one instigating everything,' Cunningham said, yet failed to remember he had previously reported the complainant weeping in the room, and men persuading her to stay when she would start to get dressed to leave. 'The very fact that the d etails he claims not to remember are the details the Crown is most interested in — and that they are the details that his friends and former teammates would not wish to have before t he court — that is enough for Your Honour to say there is evidence that this is not a sincere memory loss,' Cunningham said. Savard argued that it was a 'pretty tall order' for the Crown to suggest that their own witness had come to court to 'perjure himself for, as far as I can tell, a group of men he hasn't really talked to in seven years.' She argued that Howden was a witness who had trouble expressing himself. 'The witness is plainly unsophisticated, he didn't come to court dressed for court,' Savard said, referring to Howden's hoodie, which never made another appearance during his time on the stand. 'He is inarticulate, a poor communicator, and careless with anything, we may all say at the end of the day this witness is generally useless, but he's certainly not helpful to the defence.' Group text messages between some members of the 2018 world junior hockey championship team after they learned about an internal Hockey Canada investigation. (The texts appear in a multi-page court exhibit and have been excerpted by the Star to fit in a single image.) Carroccia concluded that Howden's memory loss was not feigned, and the Crown abandoned its application to cross-examine him. E.M. repeatedly demanding to have sex was a central feature of both Howden's and player Tyler Steenbergen's testimony for the Crown; prosecutors asked the judge to reject that part of their own witnesses' evidence, arguing it was a false version of events cooked up by members of the team through a group chat in June 2018. But Carroccia found that the group chat simply showed the players 'expressing their honest recollections' of what happened in the room , after finding out that Hockey Canada was looking into the alleged incident . 'On the basis of all of the evidence, I find as fact that the complainant did express that she wanted to engage in sexual activity with the men by saying things like 'Is someone going to f—- me?' and masturbating,' Carroccia said. It's not unusual for either side to ask that parts of their witness's testimony be accepted or rejected, Coristine said. 'But the more material you're asking a judge to parse out — asking them to accept this, but don't accept that — you run the risk of watering down the case,' he said. Ongoing coverage of the legal saga that has captured public attention and sparked a reckoning over the handling of sexual misconduct allegations in professional sports, from the Star's courts and justice reporter Jacques Gallant . 'She's come a long way': Lawyer for woman who sued Hockey Canada reflects ahead of verdicts Thursday in sexual assault trial Jury dismissed. Hockey Canada trial to go judge-alone after jurors report being 'made fun of' by defence lawyers 'I just didn't care': Why a Hockey Canada investigator's 'unfair' probe led to the exclusion of a 'virtual treasure trove' of evidence Why didn't police lay charges in 2019? Inside the London police investigations in the Hockey Canada sex assault case 'My truth': What we heard from the Hockey Canada sex assault complainant in nine days of testimony 'I'm 19 years old and there's a naked girl in the room': Accused player Carter Hart testifies at Hockey Canada sex assault trial 'I knew he didn't do anything': Hockey Canada complainant blames her lawyers for false accusation in high-profile lawsuit The Crown fought hard to have admitted as evidence a text message Howden sent to fellow world junior Taylor Raddysh on June 26, 2018, regarding Dubé in the hotel room: 'Man, when I was leaving, Duber was smacking this girl's ass so hard. Like, it looked like it hurt so bad.' E.M. had testified about ' multiple people' taking turns slapping her 'as hard as they could' and that it hurt, but was unable to identify anyone. Howden's text would have been the piece of evidence most closely aligned to what the complainant had told the court about the slapping. Steenbergen had also testified about seeing Dubé slap the complainant on the buttocks , but agreed with a suggestion from the defence that it appeared playful and part of foreplay. Howden testified he didn't remember sending Raddysh the text, which led the Crown to try to get it admitted through two different legal routes over several days of arguments. But both attempts failed. 'The information contained in this text message is important to the Crown's case,' Cunningham argued. 'The text message provides what I submit is very critical corroboration for the complainant's testimony about one of the actual offences that is charged before the court.' A composite image of London police Det. Steve Newton's handwritten notes on the complainant's comments during a June 26, 2018, photo-identification interview. Michael McLeod, Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton are pictured. Carroccia excluded the text message from the trial; among other reasons, the fact Howden didn't even remember sending it meant cross-examination by the defence would have been impossible, the judge found. Coristine said he imagines Cunningham would have been 'alive to the possibility' that Howden would have memory problems; in trying to get the text admitted, the Crown was likely keeping in mind the need to show they did everything they could, should they choose to appeal. 'The Crown has to look to the future beyond the trial, even if they don't know what the result will be,' Coristine said. Ultimately, Carroccia did find that Dubé slapped E.M. at some point in the night, but was not one of the multiple men E.M. referred to, and the judge said it would be wrong to separate this one instance from the 'broader consensual conduct' she had already found. As the Star reported in May , a different judge excluded during pre-trial hearings last year statements that McLeod, Formenton, and Dubé gave to prominent Toronto lawyer Danielle Robitaille in 2022 as part of Hockey Canada's independent investigation into what happened at the Delta Armouries. The players had been declining to speak to the police's reopened probe to maintain their right to silence, but were being compelled to speak to Robitaille under penalty of a lifetime ban from Hockey Canada activities and programs , which would have meant not being able to play in the Olympics, or even coach a hockey team. What Robitaille didn't tell the players was that by August 2022, London police had told her of their intention to get a warrant for her investigative file. She pressed ahead with her interviews of the players, keeping them in the dark about the police's plans while she grilled them about the events in the hotel room. Once the warrant was served on Robitaille's firm in the fall of 2022, the statements were turned over to the police, and Robitaille cancelled her upcoming interviews with Hart and Foote. Humphrey, McLeod's lawyer, described Robitaille's investigative file as a 'virtual treasure trove of evidence' when he questioned her during pre-trial hearings last year. Was she 'oblivious,' Humphrey asked her, to how potentially valuable these statements could be in the hands of the police and the Crown, as they made their case for criminal charges? A photo of room 209 at the Delta Armouries hotel in London, marked up by Carter Hart during his testimony, depicting player Cal Foote doing the splits over the complainant on a bedsheet on the floor on June 19, 2018. 'I just didn't care,' Robitaille testified. 'It was collateral to me.' London police were hopeful in 2022 that they could gather new information from Robitaille's work compared to what the force learned during its own investigation in 2018. In his application for a warrant, Younan said it would be reasonable to believe that Robitaille 'asked different questions of the players than our own investigators, and therefore, elicited different answers or new information about what occurred.' Superior Court Justice Bruce Thomas excluded the statements because they had been obtained in an 'unfair and prejudicial' way, agreeing with the defence lawyers' descriptions of the interviews as compelled, coerced, and involuntary. 'I would suggest that the manner in which the applicants' statements were compelled by Hockey Canada would be seen as unfair by the public and would detrimentally affect the concept of a fair trial,' he ruled. The three players told Robitaille key pieces of information they had not told police during their first investigation in 2018, but it's unclear how big a role the statements played in the police's decision to charge them following the reopening. McLeod admitted to Robitaille he had sent a text to his teammates about coming to his room for a three-way, while claiming it was E.M.'s idea. Dubé admitted to slapping E.M.'s buttocks. He told Robitaille he had been holding a golf club in his hand and E.M. said to him: 'Are you going to f--- me or play golf?' 'I was offput, didn't want to have sex with her in front of people,' Dubé said, according to notes from the interview. 'Slapped her on bum once or twice when she said that.' And Formenton said he witnessed Foote do the splits over E.M.'s face without pants. 'A guy says Foote can do the splits; she says OK,' Formenton recalled. 'So she's laying on the ground parallel between the beds. I remember he takes pants off, top clothes still on, does splits over her upper body.' The Crown had hoped to use the statements to highlight any inconsistencies between what the players said on the stand, should they choose to testify, versus what they told Robitaille. But in the end only Hart, who had never given a previous statement about the events in the hotel room, testified in his own defence . In her judgement Thursday, Carroccia said the case had a 'lengthy and contorted history' involving multiple investigations by different agencies, leading to conflicting statements from E.M., the accused men and other witnesses. 'With five accused and that barrage of evidence, I can say that counsel conducted the trial efficiently, and that the time spent, particularly in the cross-examination of E.M., was entirely appropriate,' she said. The judge emphasized that a person accused of a crime is innocent unless and until the Crown has proven their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In the face of ongoing criticism of what happened in the room — the NHL said Thursday that despite the not-guilty verdicts, the allegations were 'very disturbing and the behaviour at issue was unacceptable' — Carroccia reminded the public through her ruling what the real purpose was of this eight-week trial. 'It is not the function of this court to make determinations about the morality or propriety of the conduct of any of the persons involved in these events,' she said. 'The sole function of this court is to determine whether the Crown has proven each of the charges against each of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt. The burden rests squarely on the Crown and does not shift.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
American Military News
9 hours ago
- American Military News
Russian military aircraft tracked near Alaska
The North American Aerospace Defense Command announced on Tuesday that a Russian military aircraft was tracked inside the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone. However, military officials noted that the Russian military aircraft's movements were 'not seen as a threat' to either the United States or Canada. In a Tuesday press release, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which is a joint U.S. and Canadian military command, confirmed that it 'detected and tracked Russian military aircraft operating in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on 22 July 2025.' According to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the Russian aircraft remained in international airspace on Tuesday and did not enter the sovereign airspace of the United States or Canada. Tuesday's press release noted that Russian activity in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone 'occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat.' READ MORE: Russian warplanes enter Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, tracked by US military While the North American Aerospace Command confirmed that a Russian military aircraft entered the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, it did not confirm the identity of the Russian military aircraft. Tuesday's press release explained that an Air Defense Identification Zone 'begins where sovereign airspace ends and is a defined stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security.' The North American Aerospace Defense Command added, 'NORAD employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and fighter aircraft to detect and track aircraft and inform appropriate actions. NORAD remains ready to employ a number of response options in defense of North America.' Another Russian military aircraft was 'detected and tracked' by the North American Aerospace Defense Command in April. At the time of the April incident, the North American Aerospace Defense Command released a statement similar to the statement released by the military command on Tuesday, confirming that the Russian military aircraft's activity was not viewed as a threat.
Los Angeles Times
11 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
ICE raid at major pot operation clouds picture for legal cannabis in California
Camarillo — Ever since federal immigration agents raided one of the largest licensed cannabis operators in the state this month, the phones of cannabis industry insiders have been blazing with messages of fear, sadness and confusion. 'It sent shock waves through the community,' said Hirsh Jain, the founder of Ananda Strategy, which advises cannabis businesses. 'Everyone is on text threads.' Glass House Brands, whose cannabis operations have helped make Santa Barbara and Ventura counties the new cannabis capitals of California, has long been among the most prominent companies in the state's wild frontier of legal cannabis. Some call it the 'Walmart of Weed' for its streamlined, low-cost production methods, its gargantuan market share and its phalanx of wealthy investors and powerful lobbyists. But federal immigration agents stormed onto company property in Camarillo and Carpinteria on July 10 in a cloud of tear gas, as if they were busting a criminal enterprise. Agents in masks and riot gear marched for hours through the company's vast greenhouses as workers fled and hid in panic. One worker, Jaime Alanís Garcia, died after he fell three stories while trying to evade capture. For Glass House, the aftermath has been devastating. Its stock, which is traded on the Canadian stock exchange, dropped from more than $7.75 a share the day before the raid to $5.27 on Thursday. Some workers disappeared into Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention or bolted, too fearful to return. Others were so traumatized that Glass House brought in grief counselors, according to a source close to the company. Across the wider world of legal California cannabis — where many growers and entrepreneurs have hoped the Trump administration would legalize the drug — people were also shaken. Did the action against Glass House signal an end to federal law enforcement's ceasefire against legal cannabis in California and dozens of other states? And what did it mean for Glass House itself, among the largest cannabis companies in the world? How could this slick corporate entity, founded by an ex-cop and special education teacher and a former tech entrepreneur, be in a position in which federal agents claimed to have apprehended more than a dozen undocumented minors on site? 'This could not come at a worse time,' said Jain, the cannabis consultant, adding that the images and rhetoric that have whipped across social media in the wake of the raid 'impedes our ability to legitimize this industry in the eyes of California and the American public.' He added that 'a failure to legitimize a legal cannabis industry enables the proliferation of an illicit industry that is not accountable and engages in far more nefarious practices.' Working conditions in the cannabis industry are notoriously grim, as documented in a 2022 Times investigation that revealed workers who had their wages stolen, were forced to live in squalid and dangerous conditions and sometimes even died on the job. Glass House had no such reports of injuries or deaths before the raid and has long touted its working conditions. A source close to the company said it pays workers more than minimum wage, and internet job postings reflect that. Still, as with almost all farmwork in California, some of those who labored there were undocumented. The company employs some people directly and relies on farm labor contractors to supply the rest of its workforce. A source close to the company said labor contractors certify that the workers satisfy all laws and regulations, including being 21 or older as required to work in cannabis in California. In the days after the raid, federal officials announced they had detained 361 people, including 14 minors, who by California law cannot work in cannabis. It wasn't clear how many of those detained were undocumented or how many were even working at the operation or were just nearby. At least two American citizens were caught up in the dragnet — a security guard headed to work at Glass House and a philosophy professor at Cal State Channel Islands who was protesting the raid. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this month that Glass House had been targeted because 'we knew, specifically from casework we had built for weeks and weeks and weeks, that there was children there that could be trafficked, being exploited, that there was individuals there involved in criminal activity.' Glass House officials declined to comment for this article, but in an earlier statement on X, the company said that it had never employed minors and that it followed all applicable employment laws. A source close to the company said the search warrant federal officials presented to Glass House the day of the raid alleged it was suspected of harboring and unlawfully employing undocumented immigrants — but did not mention child labor. In the last few years, the company — along with labor contractors — was named in lawsuits by workers alleging they had been sexually harassed, suffered discrimination, and been shorted overtime pay and required meal and rest breaks. One worker at Glass House — who asked not to be identified because he is undocumented and hid from immigration agents during the raid before escaping — said he was employed to work in Glass House's cannabis operation through one of its labor contractors and valued the job because it is year round, not seasonal like many agricultural jobs. But he complained that the contractor had repeatedly paid him late, forcing him to borrow money to make his rent. He also said supervisors put intense pressure on employees to work faster, screaming expletives at workers, refusing to allow breaks, or yelling at them to eat quickly and return to work before their rest periods were done. A source close to the company said the complaints involved people employed by labor contractors, regarding actions by those contractors and not Glass House directly. Many of the suits are pending, with Glass House named as a co-defendant. Company officials declined to comment publicly. A source close to the company said Glass House takes seriously its responsibilities under California labor law and is committed to ensuring that all labor practices within its operations meet the highest standards. The source added that the raid has shaken a company that has always tried to operate by the book and that, despite its exponential growth in recent years, has sought to maintain a close-knit feel. 'It's very sad,' the source said. In the wake of the raids at Glass House, the United Farm Workers union issued a bulletin in English and Spanish warning anyone who is not a U.S. citizen to 'avoid working in the cannabis industry, even at state-licensed operations.' The union noted that 'because cannabis remains criminalized under federal law, any contact with federal agencies could have serious consequences even for people with legal status.' TODEC Legal Center, a Coachella Valley-based group that supports immigrants and farmworkers, issued a similar message. TODEC warned noncitizens to avoid working in the marijuana industry and avoid discussing any marijuana use or possession — even if it is legal in California — with federal agents, because it could hurt their status. About half the farmworkers in California are undocumented, according to UC Merced researchers. Cannabis industry experts said it is too soon to know whether the raid on Glass House will affect the larger cannabis workforce — or whether more licensed cannabis operations will be raided. 'My best guest would be that this is going to be happening to a lot more cultivation farms,' said Meilad Rafiei, chief executive of the cannabis consulting group We Cann. Among the undocumented workers at Glass House on the day of the raids was Alanís, 56, who had been a farmworker in California for three decades. Over the last 10 years, Alanís worked in the Ventura area, first in a flower nursery and then, once Glass House converted the massive greenhouse complex there, in cannabis. On Monday night, his family held an emotional wake for him in Oxnard, where he lived. The Camino del Sol Funeral Home was filled, as many family members held one another tightly and cried. They remembered him as a hardworking, joyful man, who danced at parties and enjoyed every meal he shared with family. State Sen. Monique Limón (D-Goleta), who led the Senate in adjourning in Alanís' memory last week, told the chamber how he had climbed onto the roof of a greenhouse to escape federal officers. From 30 feet up, she said, he called his family to tell them what was happening, and to report 'how scared he was.' 'Jaime's life was dedicated to our lands, our crops, and to providing for his family,' Limón said, adding that he 'had had no criminal record, he was who our country and our state depended on to provide food on all of our tables.' She added that 'his last moments on Earth were filled with terror.'
