Volume 15 • No. 9 • May 1 - 15, 2019 Publication Mailing Account #41721512
Claudine Barretto
Winnipeg meth crisis mobilizes Filipinos by Malaya Marcelino
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MHEL ELAGO (204) 955-4654
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Escalating levels of violence on Winnipeg’s streets continue to target members of the Filipino community. On April 27, Winnipeg Police arrested a 16-year-old boy accused of killing Joselito Fernandez, 53, who was shot and robbed near the railroad tracks off Selkirk Avenue on April 18. Earlier in the week, police made a second arrest in the brutal home invasion, robbery, and murder of 17-year-old Jimboy Adao. His homicide was on the heels of another senseless killing scarcely two months earlier when Ricardo Hibi, 34 years old, a foster parent was stabbed to death near the youth group home he managed. Out of the nine homicides in Winnipeg since December 2018, three victims were Filipinos whose violent murders the police have identified as crimes motivated by the perpetrators’ meth use. This pile up of homicides is in addition to the 2018 “targeted killing” of Noel Talingdan, 37, and the still missing, Eduardo Balaquit, 59, who is also presumed by the police to “very, very likely be a homicide victim.” Winnipeg Police Constable Rob Carver explained that the “city is facing a lot of crime fuelled by drugs and methamphetamine. Those drugs and meth lead to people bringing guns, and a level of violence we haven’t seen before.” Since 2017, there has been an eight per cent increase in reported See METH p18
Crystal methamphetamine or simply “crystal meth” is an illegal form of the drug (meth photos from Wikipedia)
Desoxyn tablets – pharmaceutical methamphetamine hydrochloride
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