Serious charges dropped against Mohawk activist
TORONTO -- Mohawk activist Shawn Brant has been released from prison after the most serious charges he faced following an April altercation with a Deseronto businessman were withdrawn.
Brant pleaded guilty to breach of bail and possession of a weapon for a purpose dangerous to the public peace and was sentenced by a judge to time already served -- 62 days -- plus a year of probation.
Four charges -- assault with a weapon, threatening, wilful damage and possession of marijuana -- were withdrawn, according to Brant's lawyer.
The weapon in question was a trident fishing spear that Brant had inherited from a reserve elder who died years ago.
Jamie Lalonde, owner of an auto repair shop, alleged that Brant aimed the spear at his throat when he tried to move through a roadblock staged by Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory residents.
Brant said he grabbed the spear from his car when he witnessed a red pickup truck nearly crush some Tyendinaga residents who were redirecting traffic around a roadblock, but the vehicle sped away before he could confront the driver.
Companies that make trash should pay for disposal
TORONTO -- Ontario property taxpayers are unjustly picking up the tab for companies that make garbage, says an organization representing Ontario's municipal governments.
I tell my kids, if you make a mess you pick it up and you don't wait for someone else to do it or to pay for you," said Pat Vanini, executive director of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, an organization pushing to implement a producer pay principle.
AMO is proposing to lift costs from the shoulders of property taxpayers and transfer them to the manufacturers of consumer packaging and paper products."
A quarter of the waste municipalities manage, according to the organization, is from the packaging that comes along with everything from food to household appliances.
The cost to each property taxpayer is about $55 annually.
Property taxpayers should not subsidize companies that create garbage," Doug Reycraft, president of AMO, said in a news release.
Making industry fiscally responsible for the printed paper and the packaging it produces will reduce waste, reduce municipal costs, and better protect Ontario's environment."
Driver stole knapsack before dragging boy
HAMILTON -- Hamilton police say a driver who ran over a 17-year-old boy also stopped and stole a knapsack before zooming off, dragging the boy under the vehicle for about 600 metres.
Police say the boy was cycling around 3:40 a. m. on Thursday in Hamilton with a friend when the car knocked him off his bike.
The car stopped -- on top of the boy -- and its two occupants got out and stole the knapsack from the boy's friend before zooming off again.
The boy was later found by an overpass.
He was taken to hospital where he continues to recover from extensive but non-life-threatening injuries.
Police officers released on bail after being arrested
NEWMARKET -- Two Toronto police officers who were arrested during a series of raids on marijuana growops have been released on bail.
On Thursday, police executed 63 search warrants throughout the Greater Toronto Area and laid charges against 20 people, including the police officers, three corrections officers, a real estate agent and a young person.
It's alleged the officers used the real estate agent to buy and sell homes to launder the money that was made from the sale of drugs.
Police seized about $60,000, almost eight kilograms of marijuana, three houses and five vehicles during the raids.
Small amounts of other drugs, such as ecstasy and steroids, were also found.
Officers Kevin Bourne and Patrick Lee face numerous charges and have been suspended with pay.