-- SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. -- Ten people nabbed last summer in a drug sweep in this northern Ontario city walked free Monday on the first day of what was to be a two-week trial.And is Hogtown any better?
Judge Andrew Buttazzoni dismissed trafficking charges against the nine men and one woman after he refused to grant the Crown an adjournment., requested because an out-of-town undercover police officer wasn't available to testify because he's getting married.
The mother of Bailey Zaveda rushed from court Monday, overcome with emotion as an eyewitness described discovering her daughter wounded after being shot outside the Duke of York tavern.Only in Canada, you say?
Helen Deir was listening to Derek Hall recall the hail of bullets that killed the 23-year-old Zaveda on Oct. 25, 2008. Zaveda was re-entering the Queen St. E. bar in front of Hall when she was killed.
Hall said he felt so threatened by the shooting and events afterward that he fled Toronto. He moved to a city three hours away, leaving behind his girlfriend and a good job, because he feared reprisals for speaking to police.
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UPDATE: In other "crime is falling" news
-- OTTAWA -- More than one-quarter of Canadians over the age of 15 have been victims of crime, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.**********
According the 2009 General Social Survey, 27 per cent of Canadians aged 15 and over reported being victimized by crime in the previous 12 months, the federal agency reported Tuesday.
About six per cent of the population at least 15 years of age — or about 1.6 million people — reported being subjected to violent crime.
Victim rates also varied among specific groups in the country, the report said, noting that Aboriginal residents were twice as likely to report being victimized than non-Aboriginal Canadians.
LAST WORD: Yeah... I'm shocked
A judge has granted bail to one off the three Ontario suspects charged with terrorism offences during last month's RCMP busts.
