Latest news with #MunicipalPolice
CBC
16-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Municipal police chiefs say Nova Scotia RCMP expansion counters national trend
Municipal police chiefs in Nova Scotia say the province's decision to expand the RCMP moves in a direction opposite the rest of Canada and could lead to less effective services for residents. A Deloitte review into the structure of policing in Nova Scotia released last month suggested that Nova Scotia should create a provincial police force offering both special services and local policing to better serve the public. In response, the PC government is expanding the RCMP to operate as the provincial service, rather than create an independent force like the Ontario Provincial Police or Quebec's Sûreté. The review said there is room in such a model for municipal forces that can meet provincial standards. But the province said municipal forces that need access to special services — like emergency response or dive teams — to meet those standards must pay for the RCMP to supply them in new contracts. Chief Ryan Leil of New Glasgow Regional Police, speaking on behalf of the municipal chiefs' caucus in the Nova Scotia Chiefs of Police Association, said they are concerned this new requirement could come with a major price tag, forcing towns with their own departments to switch to the RCMP. "Why is the province taking that autonomy away from the municipal police agencies to be able to collaborate and support one another?" Leil said Monday. He said municipal agencies provide high-quality policing in urban areas where residents are used to seeing response times of just a few minutes, while the Deloitte review noted people in rural areas — which the RCMP usually police — complained of slow response times. "We think that we are well represented in our communities, and we want to invest in what is working … the models that we have currently in our municipalities are working," Leil said. He said it makes sense to have multiple forces with special services to offer across the province as contingencies, so there are other options if an RCMP service is tied up. The review recommended starting with the RCMP as the provincial police service, because this would mean "fewer costs and risks" due to current RCMP agreements with the federal government. The current RCMP contract policing agreements with provinces, territories and municipalities expire in 2032. But the review also said the province could eventually move to an independent provincial police service that would allow for more oversight and control. The policing review was recommended by the Mass Casualty Commission, which was highly critical of the RCMP response to the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting that claimed 22 lives, and called for organizational change. Leil said he understands that an independent provincial force would not be a "light lift," and would be very expensive to set up with the need for new training facilities and infrastructure, but it has become the trend across Canada. Besides established models in Ontario and Quebec, Alberta announced in April it was moving to create a provincial police entity. Just before leaving the prime minister's office earlier this year, Justin Trudeau said provinces should transition away from the RCMP as contract policing. Within the Atlantic region, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary recently took over territories from the RCMP following concerns the Mounties were not providing enough resources. "Our province, our country has been through some very unfortunate experiences, and we've seen grave impacts to public safety over the past number of years," Leil said. "We shouldn't shy away from doing the right thing, even if it is the most amount of work and the greatest amount of investment we have to make." Scott Feener, police chief for the Town of Bridgewater, said they created their own police dog unit and other services years ago, because it would take days for the Nova Scotia RCMP to send requested resources. Feener said he's concerned the Mounties will take years to scale up to the staffing levels needed to properly police their current areas and ensure they have the special services that can support an entire province in a timely manner. "My vision would be our municipal servicing the way it is, or services growing in size," Feener said. "If they move away from it, there will be a decrease in service … our public safety within town will deplete." Justice Minister Becky Druhan said in an interview Tuesday that she has confidence in the Nova Scotia RCMP's "ability to step up and deliver what we're asking them to do." She said the Deloitte review's recommendations, like bringing in one record system for police, and increasing the number of special constables rather than sworn police members, will improve the quality of policing in Nova Scotia. When asked about the national trend toward independent provincial forces, Druhan said that "would take significant extensive resources" and Nova Scotia would have to first expand the RCMP model into a provincial force, even if it wanted to go in that direction. "Our focus is really on Nova Scotians and our provincial landscape in Nova Scotia around policing is very different than the other provinces," Druhan said. "Nova Scotia is unique in a variety of ways — both the way in which policing has unfolded historically, also our geography and our population." When asked about the province's requirement to have municipal forces contract new special services from the RCMP, Druhan said it is a "reflection" of the review's point that a provincial service is the best way to provide consistency. Audits on all municipal forces and the RCMP on those provincial policing standards begin this fall, and Druhan said the province will work with municipalities "to determine next steps following that." Druhan had a meeting with the Town of Bridgewater on Tuesday that included the mayor, chief administrative officer and chair of the town's police board, but not the police chief. The minister said she will meet with the rest of the municipalities served by their own police departments in the next few weeks about their policing needs, and what a new funding formula will look like. A statement from Druhan said her office appreciates the Nova Scotia chiefs' perspectives, and while her current focus is on meeting with municipalities, she plans to reach out to chiefs in the "near future."
Euronews
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Polish FM Sikorski: Anti-immigrant hysteria harms Poland
Poland's foreign minister has condemned racism and anti-Semitism on Saturday, saying they harm Poland. "Anti-immigrant hysteria harms Poland, it awakens the worst demons, and Holocaust denial excludes us from civilised nations", - Sikorski said in a recording published on the X platform. His statement followed a series of incidents in the country, including a statement by far-right MEP Grzegorz Braun in which he proclaimed that "the gas chambers at Auschwitz were fake". "Pilecki did not volunteer for Auschwitz so that now some scoundrel undermines his report for political gain," Sikorski replied. Witold Pilecki, a Polish officer and intelligence agent, let himself get arrested and interned at Auschwitz in 1940 to document what was happening there and escaped from the death camp three years later. Before returning to Poland after the war -- where he was executed by the Communist authorities in 1948 -- he compiled and published his reports on the genocide at Auschwitz. In the recording, Sikorski also recalled incidents in Zamość, where artists from Spain, India, Senegal and Serbia, as well as revellers at the 22nd Eurofolk festival which concluded on Sunday, were insulted and the Municipal Police received reports of a "refugee invasion". "This is not the only such case in the country," Sikorski commented. He also referred to the current situation at the Polish-German border, where members of so-called citizen patrols have been shouting anti-immigrant and anti-German slogans. On 7 July, Poland introduced border controls with Germany and Lithuania in response to growing criticism of Germany's decision to send back thousands of migrants who they claimed had illegally crossed the border back into Poland. "We have the right to control the borders by authorised services. We have the right to know who is legally in Poland. But there is no acquiescence to the escalating campaign of racism and the anti-Semitism it fuels," said the head of Polish diplomacy, adding that as foreign minister, he must take care of Poland's image around the world. "I am proud of Poland. Poland has always been a hospitable country, and Poles and Polish women are better than those who 'rat on strangers and fuel the spiral of hatred,'" the country's top diplomat stressed.
CBS News
02-07-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Police find 383 corpses piled up in crematorium near U.S. border in Mexico
Why Trump is pushing military help for Mexico to help fight cartels Why Trump is pushing military help for Mexico Why Trump is pushing military help for Mexico Two people have been arrested after police found 383 corpses piled up in a private crematorium in northern Mexico's Ciudad Juarez near the U.S. border, the local prosecutor's office said Tuesday, attributing the grisly find to negligence. The bodies were "deposited irregularly in the crematorium, which were not cremated," Eloy Garcia, communications coordinator of the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office, told AFP. Garcia said the corpses were "stacked" in no apparent order in various rooms of the building where the crematorium operates in the city about 10 miles south of El Paso, Texas. They were "just thrown like that, indiscriminately, one on top of the other, on the floor," he said. All the bodies had been embalmed. Instead of ashes, relatives were given "other material," Garcia said. Members of the State Attorney General's Office (FGE) and the Municipal Police remain outside the crematorium where authorities found over 380 embalmed corpses in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua State, Mexico, on June 30, 2025. HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images Authorities estimated that some of the remains could have been there for up to two years. Garcia blamed the "carelessness and irresponsibility" of the crematorium owners, adding that all such businesses "know what their daily cremation capacity is." "You can't take in more than you can process," he said. State Attorney General César Jáuregui Moreno met with families concerned that their loved ones may be among the bodies recovered from the crematorium, the prosecutor's office said Tuesday. "We will seek the highest possible penalty for those responsible," he said. "We will conduct a thorough investigation, seeking to minimize the re-victimization of families already experiencing this." Forensic officials said that of the 383 bodies, 218 are male, 149 female and 16 are currently undetermined. Two people have been arrested after police found 383 corpses piled up in a private crematorium in northern Mexico's Ciudad Juarez near the U.S. border, authorities said Tuesday, July 1, 2025. Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu via Getty Images Authorities did not specify whether the corpses belonged to victims of criminal violence. Mexico, a country hard hit by organized crime, has been suffering for years from a crisis in its forensic system, saturated by the high number of bodies to be processed, the lack of personnel and budgetary restrictions. The news of the crematorium arrested was announced just one day after 20 bodies, several of them decapitated, were found on a highway bridge in a part of Mexico where factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel are fighting each other. Four headless corpses were found by the roadside while 16 bodies were discovered inside an abandoned vehicle, the Sinaloa state prosecutor's office said. Five human heads were found inside a bag at the scene.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
Who Is Valeria Marquez, the Mexican Beauty Influencer Reportedly Murdered During Livestream?
Influencer Valeria Marquez was reportedly shot and killed inside a Mexico salon during a livestream. Authorities in Jalisco, Mexico, said in a statement on Tuesday, May 13, that a 23-year-old woman with an "active presence and influence on social media" was inside a beauty salon in Jalisco, Mexico, when a man entered the establishment and shot her, per NBC Los Angeles. The state prosecutor's office, who confirmed the incident, noted that Municipal Police officers responded after receiving a call through the emergency services. Authorities have yet to reveal who the influencer was, but several outlets have reported the victim to be Marquez — who was allegedly on a livestream during the time of the incident, where she was seen collapsing on camera. ABC7 Los Angeles reported that Marquez was pronounced dead at the scene, with authorities claiming that the suspect fled and remains at large. The outlet noted that the Attorney General's Office is investigating the case under the femicide protocol, meaning when a woman is presumed to be killed as a gender related murder. The investigation is ongoing. NBC Los Angeles reported that Forensic Medical Services will transfer the victim's body to their facilities. An autopsy will be performed and official identification by family members is pending. Scroll down to learn more about Marquez: ABC7 Los Angeles reported that Marquez was shot and killed while live streaming inside her salon, Blossom The Beauty Lounge. Translated to English, the salon's Instagram bio reads, 'There is no better treatment than the time you dedicate to yourself.' One day before news broke of her alleged death, Marquez posted a mirror selfie from inside a salon. Marquez's Instagram bio, translated to english, reads, 'Model.' Marquez's social media also indicated that she won a beauty pageant years ago, with her bio reading, 'Miss Rosto 2021.' In one Instagram photo, Marquez looked away from the camera as she walked in a two-piece outfit while in full glam. 'Everything happens, everything teaches, everything heals,' her caption read, translated to English. Marquez amassed over 140,000 followers on Instagram. After news broke of her alleged death, several users took to Instagram to share their condolences. 'I had the opportunity to meet her in person, a person with a very beautiful energy,' one user wrote, translated to English. '[I] am still in shock, [I] can't believe I will never see her [livestream] again.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Beauty Influencer Valeria Marquez Shot Dead During TikTok Livestream in Mexico, Investigation Ongoing
Valeria Marquez, a 23-year-old Mexican social media influencer, was shot to death during a TikTok livestream on Tuesday. Known for her videos about beauty and makeup, Marquez was killed in the beauty salon where she worked in Zapopan, the largest city in the Mexican state of Jalisco. According to a statement from the Jalisco state prosecutor, the case is being investigated according to protocols for femicide — the intentional killing of women or girls because of their gender. The prosecutor did not name a suspect. More from WWD To Splurge or Not to Splurge: Inside Beauty's Great Dupe Debate EXCLUSIVE: Alix Earle Is 'Un-expiring' Pantene's Newest Drop Trump's Press Secretary's Dress Stirs Up Social Media in China Moments before her death, Marquez was seen on her TikTok livestream speaking to a man off camera when she was shot once in the chest and once in the head, and collapsed. The influencer was heard saying, 'they're coming,' before a voice in the background asked, 'Hey, Vale?' A person appeared to pick up Marquez's phone, and their face briefly showed on the livestream. The incident was reported at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Avenida Servidor Público, in the Real del Carmen neighborhood. Municipal Police officers responded to the scene after receiving the report through an emergency service phone line, confirming the victim's death. Zapopan Mayor Juan Jose Frangie stated that there is no record of Marquez seeking help about any threats, according to AP. This is the eighth femicide so far this month in Jalisco. A few hours later, a former congressman with the Mexican PRI party, Luis Armando Córdova Díaz, was also shot dead in the area. Marquez was crowned Miss Rostro, a local beauty contest, in 2021, and had about 200,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok. Her social media accounts have received many comments mourning her. Best of WWD Inside Joan Rivers' Iconic Personal Jewelry Collection and Its $2.5M Christie's Auction: Black Diamonds, Pearls and More Gems 'Pride & Prejudice' 2005 Film Costumes: A Look Back 20 Years Later, Photos Costume Designer Jacqueline Durran on 'Pride & Prejudice' 20 Years Later: 'It Feels Like a Different Era of Filmmaking'
