Crime
Gunmen leave Argentine soccer star Messi a menacing message
Police gather outside the Unico supermarket, a grocery chain owned by soccer player Lionel Messi’s in-laws, after it was shot at in Rosario, Argentina, Thursday, March 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Sebastian Lopez Brach)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Gunmen left a threatening message Thursday for Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi and opened fire at a supermarket owned by his in-laws in Argentina’s third-largest city, police said.
Nobody was injured in the early morning attack, and it was unclear why assailants would target Messi or the Unico supermarket in Rosario, owned by the family of his wife, Antonella Roccuzzo.
The city’s mayor, Pablo Javkin, lashed out at federal authorities over what he called their failure to curb a surge in drug-related violence in Rosario, located about 190 miles ( 300 kilometers) northwest of the capital of Buenos Aires.
Police said two men on a motorcycle fired at least a dozen shots into an Unico branch in the early hours, and left a message on a piece of carboard that read, “Messi, we’re waiting for you. Javkin is also a drug trafficker, so he won’t take care of you.”
Messi, captain of the national team that won last year’s World Cup for Argentina for the first time in 36 years, has not commented. Messi currently plays for Paris Saint-Germain and spends much of his time overseas, though he often visits Rosario where he has a home in the suburb of Funes.
Javkin, a center-left politician in opposition to the ruling Peronist coalition, appeared to throw suspicion of complicity for the attack on both criminal gangs and federal security officials.
“I doubt everyone, even those who are supposed to protect us,” Javkin said in an interview with a local radio station.
He said the supermarket was in a section of Rosario that has seen frequent crimes, that he has raised the issue in recent meetings with federal and provincial official law enforcement officials, and that no action has been taken.
“Where are the ones who need to take care of us?” Javkin said. “It’s clear that those who have the weapons and have the possibility of investigating the criminals aren’t doing it, and it’s very easy for any gang to carry out something like this.”
Paul Bernardo sits in the back of a police cruiser as he leaves a hearing in St. Catharines, Ont., April 5, 1994. The federal public safety minister says reports of teen killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo being transferred to a medium-security prison are “shocking and incomprehensible.” THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
The federal public safety minister says reports of teen killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo being transferred to a medium-security prison are “shocking and incomprehensible.”
Citing prison union officials and the lawyer for the victims’ families, multiple media outlets say Bernardo was quietly transferred earlier this week to the medium-security La Macaza Institution, about 190 kilometres northwest of Montreal.
He was initially incarcerated at the Kingston Penitentiary in Ontario and later spent about a decade at the Millhaven Institution, a maximum security prison just outside Kingston.
Bernardo has been serving a life sentence for kidnapping, torturing and killing 15-year-old Kristen French and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy in the early 1990s near St. Catharines, Ont.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says he expects the Correctional Service of Canada to take a victim-centred and trauma-informed approach in such cases, and that he plans to address the decision process for the reported transfer with the agency’s commissioner.
The Canadian Press has reached out to the Correctional Service of Canada for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2023.
Calgary police say a father and his son have been arrested and charged after multiple teenage girls were sexually exploited, assaulted and extorted for several months. A Calgary Police Service officer is seen in Calgary on April 14, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Calgary
Calgary police say a father and his son have been arrested and charged after multiple teenage girls were sexually exploited, assaulted and extorted for several months.
Police say in a statement that they found a 13-year-old girl in April who had previously been reported missing.
They say the girl told police she was in a relationship with a 24-year-old man who gave her alcohol, drugs and vapes in exchange for sex.
Police say the man and his 56-year-old father own Haddon Convenience Store, which is located next door to a liquor store where the assaults allegedly took place.
Police allege the pair was providing drugs and alcohol to multiple other teenage girls, who were also sexually assaulted, from December to May.
They say the girls were unable to consent, because they were not 16.
Police arrested both men Thursday and executed search warrants at a home and the two businesses, where they say officers seized a computer with child pornography.
Sumrit Walia, 24, faces about 20 charges — including sexual interference with a minor, sexual exploitation as well as possessing, accessing and creating child pornography.
His 56-year-old father, Gurpartap Singh Walia, is also charged with sexual assault, sexual interference with a minor and selling contraband tobacco.
“These are incredibly serious charges, where vulnerable youths were being targeted, exploited and forced to enter a dangerous lifestyle,” said Staff Sgt. Darren Smith of the child abuse unit.
“Thankfully, with the support of Alberta Health Services, Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis Commission, and the City of Calgary, we have been able to stop the continued exploitation of these young girls.”
The girls, he said, are being supported by Luna Child and Youth Advocacy Centre. It provides support for children, youth and families who have been affected by severe and complex abuse.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2023.
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