B.C. NDP caucus asks RCMP to investigate Rustad's claim of MLA blackmailers

VICTORIA - The chair of British Columbia's NDP caucus has written to the RCMP requesting an investigation into allegations that former members of the Opposition tried to blackmail ex-colleagues.
The letter from Stephanie Higginson to Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald comes after B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad confirmed the authenticity of a letter to his caucus warning about the alleged blackmail by three MLAs and their staff.

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Vancouver Sun

an hour ago

• Vancouver Sun

Why police forces serving multiple towns are breaking up in B.C.

Police forces are splitting apart in B.C. despite more than two decades of recommendations and discussion on amalgamating municipal police agencies into larger regional forces. In Metro Vancouver, Pitt Meadows is establishing its own RCMP detachment, separate from Maple Ridge. A new $21.7-million building for the RCMP is under construction. Langley Township also plans to establish its own RCMP detachment, separate from the City of Langley, making the breakup official last month . In each case, the communities had shared RCMP detachments, but now want more control over their own detachments. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The B.C. government did not respond to Postmedia's questions put to it last week on why it's giving the OK to fragment policing, creating more, smaller police forces. The moves by Pitt Meadows and Langley township require provincial approval. Kash Heed, a former B.C. solicitor general and longtime advocate of amalgamating smaller forces into regional forces, called the moves a step backward. He also pointed to Kelowna, which is considering creating its own municipal force , and said it is a concern because what is needed is a regional force in the Okanagan, not separate independent RCMP detachments in several communities. The City of Surrey is in the midst of a controversial transition to its own municipal force from the RCMP. 'There are endless examples on the balkanization of our police services in British Columbia,' said Heed, now a city councillor in Richmond. Heed supports the 2022 recommendations of an all-party legislative committee on policing reform that said B.C. should replace the RCMP with a provincial police force and examine several areas for regionalization, including southern Vancouver Island and parts of the Lower Mainland and Okanagan. 'We need to come together and have a unified police service that's going to deliver the accountability, that's going to deliver the efficiencies and certainly deliver the effectiveness,' says Heed. The all-party legislative committee noted that having police services structured according to municipal boundaries has led to gaps in communication and administration, as well as fragmented services. Amalgamating police forces by region can increase efficiency and effectiveness of services that are highly technical, capital-intensive and specialized without sacrificing policing that is informed and responsive to the community, the committee said in its report. However, Craig Hodge, a Coquitlam city councillor and co-chairman of the local government roundtable on modernizing the B.C. Police Act, says communities should have the ability to choose the policing model best suited for them. That's particularly important given that policing can represent as much as 40 per cent of some local governments' budgets, he said. 'I think we're seeing communities with integrated detachments de-integrating because they want to be able to deliver a different level of service than their neighbour. It really goes against this whole idea that one size is going to fit all,' said Hodge. He noted it does make sense for economies of scale and for operational efficiency, and because criminals don't respect borders, to have certain parts of police services amalgamated, such as for homicide and organized crime. That is something that does take place to some extent under operations such as the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. The debate over regionalizing police forces also comes against the backdrop of questions about whether the RCMP should become solely a federal force and focus on areas such as cross-border, organized and financial crime, and stop providing contract policing to municipalities and provinces like B.C. because it drains their staffing resources. The history of calls to examine regionalizing policing stretch as far back as 1990. That year, the B.C. government launched an inquiry into policing, where police executives and other experts favoured regionalization, while most mayors and police board members were opposed. In 2007, then B.C.'s Solicitor General John Les said he was ready to talk about a regional police force for Metro Vancouver, an idea that had been raised by Heed, who was then the police chief for West Vancouver. Heed became solicitor general in 2009 and again advocated a regional force. In 2012, former judge and B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal, who headed an inquiry into the response of law enforcement into missing women and serial-killer Robert Pickton's case, recommended that Metro Vancouver form a regional police force. So far, the B.C. government response to the recommendations, including to those from the all-legislative committee, has been muted. Mike Farnworth, a recent B.C. solicitor general, said in 2023 the idea is not on the front burner. The province's current solicitor general, Garry Begg, who sat on the all-party legislative committee and is a former RCMP officer, has not said what are the government's plans, if any, for a provincial police force or combining numerous police forces into regional forces in Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria. The B.C. government did not make Begg or someone else available for an interview for this article. In Pitt Meadows, the council believes having its own force will better serve the needs of the community, with a population of 19,000, than a combined force with Maple Ridge, with a population of 102,000. In a recent council meeting that provided a transition update on its new force, Pitt Meadows councillor Bob Meachen said now the city gets to manage the resources for which it is paying. 'That's a fundamental reason for doing what we are doing,' he said. Meachen noted that increased costs from areas such as body-worn cameras that the RCMP is bringing in would have to have been paid under the old model as well. Mayor Nicole MacDonald noted the transition is on time and on budget. 'There are lots of questions from other areas that are seeing what Pitt Meadows is doing,' she said. ghoekstra@

Global News

2 hours ago

• Global News

What secrets did Calgary serial killer Gary Srery take to the grave?

Over the course of a year in the late 1970s, Calgarians woke up to horrifying headlines splashed across newspaper front pages. In just over 12 months, four young women's lives were extinguished under mysterious circumstances. Friends Eva Dvorak and Patsy McQueen, both 14, were found dead on the side of the Trans-Canada highway west of Calgary on Feb. 15, 1976. The body of Melissa Rehorek, 20, was found in a ditch on a quiet gravel road 22 km west of the city seven months later. And in February of 1977, the body of Barbara MacLean, 19, was discovered by a dog walker just outside the city's northeast quadrant. For years, despite evidence, interviews and autopsies, the explanations into all four deaths were scant. The cause of death for McQueen and Dvorak, who had been sent home the day they died after being caught drinking at their junior high school, was listed as undetermined. Autopsies revealed the pair had drugs and alcohol in their systems when they died, but their deaths were never ruled as murder. Story continues below advertisement Rehorek and MacLean's deaths showed similarities, leading investigators to believe they might have been victims of a single killer, but a suspect was never identified. For decades, the families and friend of each young woman waited for more information, for the cold cases to run hot. As the years ticked by, hope diminished. View image in full screen The photos of Eva Dvorak, 14, Patricia McQueen, 14, Melissa Rehorek, 20, and Barbara MacLean, 19, are displayed at a police press conference. Shane Struck / Global News Almost half a century later, in 2024, the RCMP released a bombshell press release. 'American believed to be serial killer behind deaths of 4 young Calgarians,' read Global News' headline on May 17, 2024, as police announced a break in not one, but all four cases. At a news conference in Edmonton, police announced that all four young women were victims of a serial killer by the name of Gary Srery — an American citizen living in Canada illegally at the time of the homicides. Story continues below advertisement Police said ahead of each of the four victims' deaths, they had been walking in the evening. All four died of asphyxiation and their bodies were left outside of Calgary's city limits. In each case, seminal fluid was found on the victims but police noted that at the time of their deaths there was no way to test for a DNA profile of a suspect. View image in full screen The underpass where the bodies of Patsy McQueen and Eva Dvorak were discovered. File photo / Global News Now, Global's true crime offering, Crime Beat, is looking back on the case, with exclusive interviews from the detectives who helped link the crimes, never-before-heard details from one of the victim's sisters and a jaw-dropping interview with the serial killer's own son, who provides insight into how his father became a serial killer — and the reasons he believes his dad is responsible for the death of another young Alberta woman. On May 17, 2024, the RCMP said Gary Srery was responsible for the deaths of four young Calgarians. Supplied by RCMP Keep reading to learn more about Srery, how advances in forensic technology helped link the Calgary murders and why investigators think he may be connected to additional murders and sexual assaults. Story continues below advertisement Who is Gary Srery? Gary Allen Srery was born in Illinois in 1942, the first of three siblings, and moved with his family to California in the mid-1950s. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy While little is known about his formative years, by the 1960s he began to rack up an extensive rap sheet, particularly for violent and sexual offences, starting with a forcible rape conviction in 1965. He faced additional charges of kidnapping, sexual perversion and burglary around that time, leading to the State of California to classify him as a 'mentally disordered sex offender,' and he was committed to a mental health facility. In and out of incarceration, the next few years saw Srery rack up additional charges, including rape, drug possession, kidnapping and sodomy. Gary Srery is shown in an undated photo. Handout / RCMP In 1974, Srery attacked a female hitchhiker in the San Fernando Valley in California, and, attempting to escape the Los Angeles rape charge, he crossed into Canada illegally. Story continues below advertisement He was a bit of a chameleon, ever-changing his appearance, his vehicles and his aliases. Once in Canada he became an under-the-table drifter, working as a salesman or in kitchens in Southern Alberta and B.C., and staying off the radar of police. He often used the names 'Willy Blackman' and 'Rex Long.' View image in full screen Gary Srery often changed his looks, vehicles and aliases. Handout / Alberta RCMP Srery's deception worked. It wasn't until his 1998 arrest in New Westminster, B.C., for a violent sexual assault, that his crimes north of the border caught up with him. Following a five-year sentence in Canadian prison, he was deported back to the U.S. in 2003. A trickle of tips and leads With Srery back in the U.S., investigators continued to pick away at the cold cases. In 2003, taking advantage of advancements in forensic technology, evidence from Rehorek and MacLean's crime scenes were sent in for DNA testing and confirmed what police suspected all along — seminal DNA found on their clothing matched a single, unknown offender. Story continues below advertisement It was almost another 20 years, in the fall of 2022, when Dvorak's sister, Anita Vukovich-Kohut, learned that the case of the two junior high students had been reopened after she called police to check in on the case. 'I don't know what the trigger was that got [police] to start looking into it,' she told Crime Beat, 'but when I asked about it they had already begun the process.' View image in full screen Anita Vukovich-Kohut was surprised to learn her sister's case had been reopened. Crime Beat / Global News RCMP told Crime Beat that two months before receiving Vukovich-Kohut's call, they had received a tip that spurred further investigation: an inmate had found McQueen's name in the notes of another inmate. While the tip turned out to be a dead end, the investigator handling the case realized there were exhibits in the McQueen and Dvorak case that hadn't been tested using new DNA technology. Story continues below advertisement While waiting for the results of the testing to come back, and inspired by the capture of the Golden State Killer using investigative genetic genealogy (IGG), police, in partnership with the RCMP, reopened the cases of Rehorek and MacLean. When they uploaded the DNA samples from the cases into the genetic genealogy databank, it spit back a family tree of more than 6,400 people related to the unknown offender, dating back to the early 1700s. Within months, they narrowed down their search to a small group of brothers. One of the siblings, Gary Srery, had already made headlines about being a serial rapist, giving investigators their No. 1 suspect. Meanwhile, police were able to link Srery to the Calgary area during the time of the four murders, and reviewed the cases of eight other women who survived attacks by Srery, painting a picture of how the suspected serial killer moved and operated. When the DNA results came back, police were finally able to confirm that Srery had violently raped and murdered all four young women. View image in full screen Left to right: Calgary serial killer victims Melissa Rehorek, 20, Patricia 'Patsy' McQueen, 14, Eva Dvorak, 14, and Barbara MacLean, 19. Alberta RCMP Are there other Canadian victims? While the families of each Calgary victim say they were relieved to finally have some closure, Srery was long dead, having died from natural causes in an Idaho prison in 2011 while serving a life sentence for another violent rape. Story continues below advertisement Investigators say he's likely responsible for other unsolved murders, but his death means there's a good chance Srery took secrets of other committed crimes to the grave. Even his son, Richard, believes there are other crimes at the hands of his dad that are waiting to be uncovered. View image in full screen Gary Srery's son, Richard, told Crime Beat in an exclusive interview that he believes his dad is responsible for more crimes. Crime Beat 'He is one of the most charismatic, convincing, intellectual people I have ever actually ever encountered,' he told Crime Beat in an exclusive interview, explaining he believes his dad used his smarts and social skills to prey on his victims. 'I can't help thinking, even to this day, how many do we not know about?' 0:33 Gary Srery's son speaks out about his father's crimes The case of Kelly Cook One of the unsolved cases he believes is connected to his dad, said Richard, is the mysterious 1981 kidnapping and murder of a 15-year-old girl in rural Alberta. Story continues below advertisement Revealing a letter written to him by his father from prison, Richard said the note mentioned several aliases Srery had used in the past, including the name 'Bill Christensen.' Bill Christensen was also the name used by a man in Standard, Alta., 70 km north of Calgary, who called up an unsuspecting teenager by the name of Kelly Cook, luring her to her death under the guise of a babysitting job. View image in full screen Kelly Cook disappeared from her home in Alberta in 1981, in one of the highest profile cases in the province's history. File / Global News Two months later, Cook's body was found in the Chin Lake Reservoir, east of Lethbridge, tied up with ropes and anchored by concrete blocks. Years later, anticipating a visit from RCMP to his home in the U.S. to talk about cases linked to his father, Richard said he had stumbled across Cook's case in another Crime Beat episode: The Case of Kelly Cook: The Backup Babysitter. Story continues below advertisement 'I was convinced from watching it, this is him, this is the (case) they're going to talk to me about,' he said. 'He lived there, the aliases…everything about it just adds up.' Surprised when Cook's case didn't come up in their conversation, Richard said he brought it up with the investigators, who quickly shot him down, saying they didn't have a connection between the case and his dad. The RCMP claims there's no mention of the alias Bill Christensen in Srery's file, nor evidence that connects him to Cook's death. — Crime Beat airs its penultimate episode of the season at 10 p.m. ET on Global, examining a series of serial killings in Calgary in the 1970s and how the man responsible, Gary Srery, might have had more victims. Check your local listings for airtimes. Episodes appear streaming and on the StackTV app the following day. Story continues below advertisement — Global News and Global TV are both properties of Corus Entertainment.

CBC

6 hours ago

• CBC

Seven weeks later, two N.S. children are still missing. Why wasn't an Amber Alert issued?

Seven weeks after two children went missing from a rural Nova Scotia community, family members are still questioning why an Amber Alert wasn't issued for Lilly and Jack Sullivan. The young siblings have been missing since the morning of May 2, when police received a 911 call reporting they had wandered away from their home in Lansdowne Station, about 140 kilometres northeast of Halifax. RCMP have said all along that the case did not meet the criteria for the alert, and are now providing more details on the factors that are considered and the process that plays out in such situations. Amber Alerts are a national public notification system used to help find abducted children believed to be in imminent danger. Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay, who works in the RCMP's communications unit, was working the day of the disappearance and reviewed the policy on Amber Alerts. He said the criteria state there must be something to point the public toward, such as a suspect, a person of interest or a vehicle. "You want to direct the public to look for a specific vehicle, to look for that licence plate, to look for that suspicious person, to have a photo of someone or more information to suggest that there was an abduction," said Tremblay in a recent interview. While Tremblay reviewed the policy, it's the risk manager — appointed for every major incident — that ultimately decides if an alert should be sent out. In this case, the force issued two "vulnerable persons" alerts. The first was sent at 12:43 p.m. on the day of the disappearance and was directed to cellphones across a swath of communities in northeastern parts of Nova Scotia's mainland, including Lansdowne Station and New Glasgow. The second was issued at 5:26 p.m. the following day — May 3 — and included a larger area from Truro up to Tatamagouche and stretching across to Antigonish. For Daniel Martell, the children's stepfather, those alerts did not go far enough. He said he asked RCMP to issue an Amber Alert early on, and to position officers at the New Brunswick and P.E.I. borders and the airport, but was told the situation did not meet the criteria. "I think they should have just bent the criteria at that moment," said Martell. "It wasn't just one missing person, but two vulnerable children." 'I didn't kill Lilly and Jack': Stepfather of missing N.S. kids says he passed polygraph 23 hours ago Duration 10:30 Six weeks after two children went missing in Nova Scotia, Lilly and Jack Sullivan's stepfather says he passed a police polygraph related to their disappearance. He spoke with the CBC's Kayla Hounsell. Lilly and Jack's mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, posted on her Facebook page the day after the disappearance asking for an Amber Alert to be issued. RCMP have repeatedly said there is no evidence to suggest the children were abducted. But that hasn't quelled the concerns of Belynda Gray, the children's paternal grandmother. She, too, wanted police to issue an Amber Alert, given the children's vulnerability. Lilly and Jack's mother and stepfather have both spoken to the media about how the siblings could have autism, but it has not been diagnosed. Gray says it's unfortunate an Amber Alert hinges on a specific car or person being identified as involved in a disappearance. "These are vulnerable kids," Gray said in a recent interview. "They do have a bit of a learning disability, so that puts them even more vulnerable." Grandmother of missing N.S. kids shares her story — and her son's 2 days ago Duration 8:51 The investigation has included searches of 8.5 square kilometres surrounding the children's home, including wooded areas, the family home, mine shafts, wells, septic systems and lakes. There are 11 RCMP units working on the case, with the major crime unit taking the lead. Formal interviews have been conducted with 54 people, some of whom were administered polygraph tests. Police have also collected hundreds of hours of video from the surrounding area, including dashcam footage of Gairloch Road — where the family home is located — from days before the disappearance. Meanwhile, the Nova Scotia government is offering up to $150,000 for information about the disappearance. On Thursday, Justice Minister Becky Druhan repeated that Amber Alerts involve specific criteria that were followed in this case. She noted they are administered through a national system, so the criteria are standardized across Canada and any changes would be beyond her department's scope. "Right now, we are focused on doing what we can to help support the investigation," said Druhan. "Ther RCMP has asked us to include this case in the major rewards program, and so we're hopeful that that's going to help generate some information that's going to help solve this case." There were eight Amber Alerts involving 10 children issued last year across Canada, according to the RCMP's National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains. All of those children were found alive.