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Thursday, December 20, 2018
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Husky oil spill case moving through pre-trial sessions
Skating with Santa
No dates, no court location yet By John Cairns
I know that it seems like it’s taking a long time, but as you can appreciate it’s a pretty complicated situation.
Staff Repoter
Skate Battlefords held their annual Christmas Skate for families at the Battleford Arena on Monday. The event drew a good turnout of parents and kids, as well as a special appearance by Santa Claus who laced up the skates that evening. Photo by John Cairns
Sports North Stars win in OT Page 15
News
Co-op moving into Super A building Page 3
Art
Embroidery at the Chapel Gallery Page 9
A pre-trial conference into the Husky environmental charges took place Tuesday afternoon at North Battleford Provincial Court. Provincial Crown lawyer Matthew Miazga, federal Crown lawyers Carol Carlson and Stephen Jordan as well as Husky
‘Procedural gap’ identified in review of Whitstone case By John Cairns Staff Reporter
Saskatchewan RCMP have released details to the public about results of an internal review of the member-involved shooting death of Brydon Whitstone on Oct. 21, 2017. The review identified one “procedural gap” that RCMP say has been pointed out to the force. According to a news release from Saskatchewan RCMP, the review results were received Aug. 10. Now that the results have been shared with Whitstone’s
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family, it is being released to the public. The news release noted Saskatchewan RCMP asked Manitoba RCMP to examine all the facts around the case. “After a critical incident such as this, RCMP policy requires this review to ensure our policies and procedures were followed,” states the release. “The objectives of the review were to identify any breaches of policy, reporting requirements or training gaps; examine the circumstances surrounding the complaint, our response and the ac-
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tions of our officers; and determine if the responding officers’ conduct was compliant with the RCMP Act and Regulations. This RCMP review would have been completely separate from the independent investigation into the incident conducted by Regina Police Service, the external review whose results were announced in September, resulting in no criminal charges. According to the RCMP, their review identified one procedural gap in regards to how the officers Continued on Page 6
- Lawyer Matthew Miazga defence lawyer Brad Gilmour appeared before Judge Lorna Dyck, with the focus on case management. The conference, which took place off the record and which was closed to the public, took up most of the afternoon. The indication is that it was a productive meeting, but Judge Dyck said all sides “felt more work needs to be done” on the file. As a result, case management has been adjourned to Feb. 4, 2019 at 1:30 p.m. in North Battleford Provincial Court. That next appearance will likely be much the same with discussions continuing to happen behind closed doors. “There will be a similar process to what happened today, with a view towards moving the case forward one way or another,” said Miazga to reporters outside the courthouse. “I know that it seems like it’s taking a long time,
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but as you can appreciate it’s a pretty complicated situation. A lot of people are affected by what happened. There’s a lot of different options as far as the court goes for resolution of the file, and all those have to be considered.” The charges are all in connection to the July 2016 oil spill into the North Saskatchewan River near Maidstone. The previous appearances in the case have all taken place in Lloydminster Provincial Court. The charges have been before the courts since March of this year. Both Husky Energy Inc. and Husky Oil Operations Ltd. face nine federal counts: one count of allowing the deposit of a deleterious substance, namely crude oil, under s.40(2) of the Fisheries Act, seven counts of not taking reasonable measures to prevent the deposit of a deleterious substance Continued on Page 3
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