CBSA investigation into prohibited devices leads to charges against residents of Laval and Saint-Eustache Français
MONTREAL, June 18, 2025 /CNW/ - Scott Shein, 51, a resident of Laval, and John Papadimitriou, 52, a resident of Saint-Eustache, will appear in court on June 19, 2025, at the Laval courthouse to face 17 criminal charges. These charges were laid as part of a criminal investigation by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) into the illegal importation of a prohibited weapon and prohibited devices.
The CBSA investigation followed the interception of packages by Canada Border Services officers in April 2024 at the CBSA International Mail Processing Centre in Mississauga, Ontario. The investigation identified two individuals in Canada involved in importing a prohibited weapon and devices from the United States. Search warrants executed at the residences of the two accused on June 6, 2024, resulted in the seizure of additional evidence, including several weapons.
Scott Shein and John Papadimitriou are both charged with importing prohibited devices under subsection 159(1) of the Customs Act and paragraph 104(1)(a) of the Criminal Code, as well as conspiracy under subsection 465(1) of the Criminal Code.
Scott Shein faces three additional charges related to the importation and possession of prohibited weapons:
one count under subsection 159(1) of the Customs Act for smuggling goods into Canada;
one count under paragraph 104(1)(a) of the Criminal Code, for importing a prohibited weapon into Canada; and
one count under subsection 91(2) of the Criminal Code, for possession of prohibited weapons.
John Papadimitriou faces the following charges:
one count under paragraph 108(1)(b) of the Criminal Code for possessing a restricted firearm with an obliterated serial number;
one count under subsection 99(1) of the Criminal Code for manufacturing a restricted firearm;
three counts under subsection 102.1(1) of the Criminal Code for possessing computer data for the purpose of printing firearms using a 3D printer;
one count under subsection 91(1) of the Criminal Code for being in possession of five restricted or prohibited firearms without authorization;
one count under subsection 86(1) of the Criminal Code for improperly storing 14 firearms;
two counts under subsection 91(2) of the Criminal Code for possessing 15 prohibited weapons and 14 prohibited devices; and
one count under section 155 of the Customs Act for possession of four illegally imported prohibited devices.
A file concerning these offences was referred to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, and charges were laid on June 2, 2025. These charges are subject to validation by the court.
Quote
"The interception of high-risk goods, such as firearms, firearm components, and prohibited weapons and devices, is a priority for the Canada Border Services Agency. Offenders will be held accountable for their actions. I commend our officers who, through their dedication and expertise, have protected our communities by stopping the illegal flow of dangerous weapons".
- Eric Lapierre, Regional Director General, Quebec Region, Canada Border Services Agency
Quick facts
Canada is investing $1.3 billion to bolster security at the border and strengthen the immigration system, all while keeping Canadians safe. Information on the border plan is available at The Government of Canada's Border Plan: significant investments to strengthen border security and our immigration system.
The CBSA is committed to protecting Canadians by preventing firearms and prohibited weapons from entering our communities and conducting criminal investigations into those who commit criminal offences under border legislation.
The Agency conducts intelligence and investigative operations to identify and intercept contraband. These activities consistently result in numerous seizures across the country and various charges under the Customs Act and the Criminal Code.
For the latest seizure statistics, visit the Canada Border Services Agency seizures page.
Report any suspicious cross-border activity by contacting the Border Watch Hotline at 1-888-502-9060 (toll-free from Canada and the United States).
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Montreal Gazette
an hour ago
- Montreal Gazette
Anger fuelled man accused in McGill Ghetto stabbing death, psychiatrist tells trial
Montreal Crime By François Pelletier was acting in anger and was not delusional when he killed Romane Bonnier by stabbing her repeatedly in the McGill Ghetto more than three years ago, a forensic psychologist said at the accused's murder trial on Friday. In his second day of testimony before a jury at the Montreal courthouse, psychiatrist Gilles Chamberland continued to make the argument that Pelletier's case does not fall within Section 16 of the Criminal Code, which covers whether an accused is not criminally responsible for his actions. Pelletier, 39, is acting as his own lawyer in the trial. He has told the jury he suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder and that his 'normally baseline' delusions became intense after June 23, 2021, when 24-year-old Bonnier told him she wanted to see other men, as well as him, during a relationship that had begun only a week earlier. On Oct. 19, 2021, Pelletier stabbed Bonnier 26 times on Aylmer St. in front of several stunned witnesses. While testifying in his own defence, Pelletier told the jury he prevented an 'apocalypse' by killing Bonnier. The jury has heard evidence, including Pelletier's own testimony, that he sees women he is attracted to in extremes, where they are either princesses or prostitutes. 'It is clear that when (Pelletier) talks about the apocalypse, it is the apocalypse for him,' Chamberland said. 'He didn't think that the moment he killed the victim the apocalypse wouldn't arrive. When he testified, he said he was living the apocalypse and that he would continue living it, that the apocalypse would come if (he didn't kill Bonnier).' 'Is there a mental illness inside that,' prosecutor Louis Bouthillier asked. 'No. It is a very, very big fragility,' Chamberland said. 'It is not a sickness. He is like that.' Chamberland did not have a chance to evaluate Pelletier in person. He based his findings on Pelletier's testimony during the trial and documents, including an evaluation done by another psychiatrist that was never completed. That document details how Pelletier showed symptoms of having obsessive compulsive disorder from the age of eight and that he sought help in 2016 at Montreal hospitals and a clinic after a relationship with a different woman came to an end in 2015. Beginning in 2010, Pelletier was in three relationships in all, including with Bonnier, and it appears they all ended when the women did not fit into his concept of how a woman should be. 'He was searching for an ideal love. That is clear,' Chamberland said. The psychiatrist pointed out how Pelletier only knew Bonnier for less than four weeks after he moved into her apartment, and that they were in a relationship for just a week when Pelletier became upset after she told him she wanted to see other men while continuing to be in a relationship with him. On Thursday, Chamberland said that in his opinion, what Pelletier was experiencing when he killed Bonnier was pain and suffering and not a delusion as the accused claimed many times when he testified. Chamberland was also asked to offer his opinion on text messages Pelletier sent to a young woman hours before he killed Bonnier. Days before the homicide, they met for a date at a park on Mount Royal, took a walk down the mountain and had a conversation on Queen Mary Rd. On the day Bonnier was killed, Pelletier sent the woman messages asking if she wanted to go to St-Jérôme so she could hand out her curriculum vitae. She was looking for a job and Pelletier was offering to help her, but he also wanted to turn the trip into a romantic one. He offered to take the woman for a walk on a boardwalk and suggested they sightsee and look at the fall foliage in the Laurentians. 'He is logical (in the message). There is nothing in there that suggests something is about to happen,' Chamberland said. 'It is very strange. 'It is like he is not sure (Bonnier's death) is about to happen. Life is going on (beyond Oct. 19, 2021).' When the woman testified earlier this week, Pelletier asked her why she didn't accept his offer and she said it was because she didn't trust him following their first date. When he testified before the jury, Pelletier said that on Oct. 15, 2021, four days before he killed Bonnier, he already made the decision to kill her. Before Chamberland began testifying on Friday, Superior Court Justice François Dadour told the jury they might have to sit on Tuesday, the Fête de la Saint-Jean, a statutory holiday. The judge has said before that he hopes to have the jury deliberating by the end of next week and, in order to keep that schedule, Pelletier might need more than one day to cross-examine the psychiatrist. In order to have the jury sitting on that day, several staff at the courthouse will have to work on a day when the courthouse is almost entirely closed.
Cision Canada
a day ago
- Cision Canada
Decision Notice - CIRO Hearing Panel sanctions Michael Rolland Smith Français
HALIFAX, NS, June 19, 2025 /CNW/ - Following a disciplinary hearing held on June 2, 2025, at which an Agreed Statement of Facts was provided, a hearing panel of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) under the Mutual Fund Dealer Rules found that Michael Rolland Smith: (a) misappropriated monies from a client or otherwise obtained monies from a client, some or all of which were not repaid, (b) changed the designated beneficiary for a client's mutual fund accounts to family members, and (c) failed to cooperate with an investigation into his conduct by CIRO Staff. The hearing panel imposed the following sanctions on Michael Smith: (a) a global fine of $1,509,879.41 (b) a permanent prohibition from conducting securities related business in any capacity while in the employ of or associated with any Dealer Member of CIRO. Michael Smith will also pay costs of $20,000. The hearing panel's reasons for decision will be made available at The Agreed Statement of Facts is available at: Smith, Michael – Agreed Statement of Facts At all material times, Michael Smith conducted business with Investors Group Financial Services Inc. in the Amherst, Nova Scotia area. Michael Smith is not currently registered in the securities industry in any capacity. The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) is the national self-regulatory organization that oversees all investment dealers, mutual fund dealers and trading activity on Canada's debt and equity marketplaces. CIRO is committed to the protection of investors, providing efficient and consistent regulation, and building Canadians' trust in financial regulation and the people managing their investments. For more information, visit All information about disciplinary proceedings relating to current and former member firms and individual registrants under the Investment Dealer and Partially Consolidated Rules (for investment dealers), the Mutual Fund Dealer Rules (for mutual fund dealers) and the Universal Market Integrity Rules (UMIR) is available on CIRO's website. Background information regarding the qualifications and disciplinary history, if any, of advisors currently employed by CIRO-regulated investment firms is available free of charge through the AdvisorReport service. Information on how to make dealer, advisor or marketplace-related complaints is available by calling 1-877-442-4322. CIRO investigates possible misconduct by its member firms and individual registrants. It can bring disciplinary proceedings which may result in sanctions including fines, suspensions, permanent bars, expulsion from membership, or termination of rights and privileges for individuals and firms. SOURCE Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO)
Cision Canada
a day ago
- Cision Canada
B.C. court says fraudster's financial sanction will not be erased by bankruptcy
VANCOUVER, BC, June 19, 2025 /CNW/ - A $6.8 million financial sanction against a fraudster will not be extinguished if he is discharged from bankruptcy, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled. The BC Securities Commission (BCSC), which ordered Thomas Arthur Williams to pay the sanction in 2016, had asked that the sanction remain enforceable even if all or most of his other debts are erased by discharge from bankruptcy. The judge granted the BCSC's application based on last year's ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada in another BCSC case. The Supreme Court of Canada said that a type of financial sanction known as disgorgement – an order to pay money representing the amount obtained or loss avoided by the wrongdoing – should survive bankruptcy if it was imposed for misconduct involving "false pretences or fraudulent misrepresentation." "There is a direct link between the disgorgement order debt and [Williams's] deceitful misconduct," the court said. A BCSC panel found in 2016 that Williams, who had been a registered mutual fund representative, was the mastermind of a Ponzi scheme that raised approximately $11.7 million from 123 investors between February 2007 and April 2010. The panel found that he committed fraud and violated securities laws concerning prospectus and registration requirements. Williams, who applied for bankruptcy in 2021, has not paid any portion of the $6.8 million disgorgement order. He opposed the BCSC's application to have the disgorgement survive discharge from bankruptcy, but according to the court, he "was unable to provide a reason for why the declaration should not be granted when given an opportunity to do so during the course of the hearing." Any funds collected for disgorgement can be returned to victims of the misconduct. This month's B.C. Supreme Court ruling was the first to use the Supreme Court of Canada's legal test for determining whether a financial sanction should survive discharge from bankruptcy. The Supreme Court of Canada, in that same 2024 ruling, said that administrative penalties – which are separate from disgorgement orders, and are aimed at deterring misconduct – are not enforceable after a discharge from bankruptcy. The court's 5-2 ruling was based on its interpretation of the federal Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA), which says that certain types of debts will not be erased after discharge. The court noted that Parliament could have drafted the BIA to expressly say that financial sanctions of regulatory bodies or administrative tribunals are exempt from bankruptcy discharge, but the BIA does not say that. In response to that ruling, the BCSC has been engaging with elected and appointed federal officials about adding securities regulators' financial sanctions to the BIA's list of debts that survive bankruptcy. In addition to the $6.8 million disgorgement order against Williams, the BCSC also imposed a $15 million administrative penalty. He has not paid any portion of that, either. Williams sought to be discharged from bankruptcy in 2023. The BCSC and the court-appointed trustee opposed that application, which was adjourned indefinitely. About the BC Securities Commission ( The BC Securities Commission, an independent provincial government agency, strives to make the investment market benefit the public. We set rules, monitor compliance by industry, take action against misconduct, and provide guidance to investors and industry. As guardians of B.C.'s investment market, we're committed to maintaining a market that is honest, fair, competitive and dynamic, enabling British Columbians to thrive. Learn how to protect yourself and become a more informed investor at
