Son Murdered, Parents Help Others Whose Children Have Been Slain

Floyd and Karen Wiebe know the horror of losing a child to drugs -- and then to violence.

And now they are doing everything in their power to prevent more families from going through a similar hell.

The Wiebe's 20-year-old son T.J. was lured by a group of drug associates outside the city, injected with a syringe, strangled, stabbed and left to die in a snowbank in January 2003.

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A trio of drug dealers recently busted for peddling crack and powdered cocaine have likely been selling to students at high schools in Tuxedo and Charleswood, including St. Paul's, Shaftesbury and Oak Park, Winnipeg police said yesterday.

Three men -- two are 18 and the third is 21 -- were arrested after cops raided a home on Sparrow Road in Charleswood and seized 20 rocks of crack and roughly an ounce of powdered cocaine.

Sgt. Kelly Dennison, a spokesman for Winnipeg police, said the men were "dial-a-dealers" whose phone numbers police believe may have been making the rounds through the schools.

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A drug case implicating three south Winnipeg high schools has renewed calls for drug-sniffing dogs to catch kids selling drugs in city schools.

Angry parents who contacted the Free Press on Friday said school officials could do more to get drugs out of their children's schools instead of taking a softer approach that education is better than punishment.

"Why a superintendent or school principal wouldn't want better conditions for students is hard to understand," one father said. "Some of these people have their heads in the sand."

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High-Fives And Smiles As Evidence Finally Ends

JURORS exchanged high-fives and big smiles Friday after learning they had just heard from the final witness in the marathon trial against full-patch Hells Angels member Ian Grant.

The spontaneous celebration brought laughs throughout the court, where such displays are rarely, if ever, seen.

"After more than two months, it's not a surprise they'd feel that way," said Queen's Bench Justice John Scurfield.

Jurors ended up sitting a total of 37 days, hearing from 43 witnesses and viewing more than 150 eye-opening exhibits. It was one of the longest and most comprehensive trials in recent Manitoba history.

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Crack Cocaine Being Peddled In Upscale Areas

NO one should be surprised some city high school students are experimenting with a street drug more associated with the gritty inner city than Winnipeg's tonier neighbourhoods, school officials said Thursday.

Their comments were in response to news Thursday that city police arrested several alleged crack cocaine "dial-a-dealers" in the past week that counted as their customers students from Tuxedo's all-male St. Paul's High School, Shaftesbury High School next door and Oak Park High School in Charleswood.

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Tab Can Hit Up To $300,000 For Wannabes

YOU too can be a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club -- as long as you have upwards of $300,000.

Almost akin to a bizarre franchise fee, that's how much an expert in the Hells Angels told jurors at a trial of a club member it is estimated to cost an individual to go through the roughly five-year period from the time they say they want to join the club as a "friend" to the point they become a "full patch member."

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MORE police officers, more prosecutors and intense pressure on Ottawa to crack down on car thieves.

That is what a re-elected NDP government will do, Premier Gary Doer said Wednesday, pledging a $12.25-million anti-crime spending spree for 100 new police officers and 20 new prosecutors.

There will also be two new investigative teams for the Safer Communities program, which has shut more than 200 gang houses, drug dens and prostitution houses since 2002. And Doer committed to long-term funding for the recent pilot project introduced to monitor car thieves with GPS (global positioning system) devices.

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Hundreds of pro-marijuana Manitobans -- mostly teens and young adults - -- converged yesterday on the legislature's front lawn for an annual show of force to push for a complete legalization of pot possession and use.

Amid pro-pot signs, the sound of bongo drums and a smoking and sniffing of marijuana and other fumes from various contraptions, the party was well under way by noon.

And it grew bigger quickly, with warm and clear conditions helping to draw an estimated 700 people by about 2 p.m.

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Tokers Suck It Up At Yearly Pot Fest

THERE'S something happening here.

What it is, ain't exactly clear.

But there was haze drifting over the sprawling lawn of the legislative building Friday afternoon, where upwards of 3,000 mainly young people were kind of strolling, kind of sitting, kind of chilling, passing stuff around and sharing nicely.

The haze had the not unpleasant smell of the demon weed, marijuana.

"A lot of people are here to get high. It's like a protest," said Alexis, part of a University of Manitoba group that came uptown for the annual show of support for the legalization of marijuana.

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Jurors Shown Items Seized At Clubhouse

THE names, addresses and phone numbers of hundreds of Hells Angels members around the world are now available for public consumption after being shown to jurors Friday at an ongoing Winnipeg trial.

Police seized the detailed documents during a February 2006 raid at the Hells Angels clubhouse in Winnipeg.

Now Crown prosecutors are using them to argue that full-patch gang member Ian Grant should be convicted on charges that include participating in a criminal organization.

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Seized Records Give Rare Glimpse

THE public is getting an incredible glimpse at the inner workings of the Manitoba Hells Angels -- including pictures of their parties, financial records and detailed minutes of their regular board meetings.

Hundreds of pages of new documents were tendered yesterday at the trial of a full-patch member, who is facing nine charges, including extortion, drug trafficking, proceeds of crime and participating in a criminal organization.

Queen's Bench Justice John Scurfield has approved the release of all exhibits which are presented to the jury.

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ISN'T that just like a government, to bring a bureaucracy to a dope deal? It's hard to believe, but Ottawa's involvement in growing and supplying medical marijuana to the terminally ill and chronically suffering makes the time when patients had to go to illegal dealers seem like the glory days of medical marijuana.

Millions of Canadians use or have used marijuana recreationally. Not all of them, or even many of them, as has occasionally been suggested, need it for medical reasons. Of all those users, and out of all the Canadians who are in serious, chronic pain or suffering from a debilitating illness, however, only 1,742 are licensed to use marijuana for medical purposes. That tiny figure is the result of a hysterically irresponsible reaction by a government that sees great harm where little exists but is blinded to benefits that could spring from a more enlightened policy.

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CITY police are investigating the possibility a 38-year-old man was shot dead as part of a gangland plot likely involving the drug trade, police and other sources said Wednesday.

What's more worrying is the two 15-year-old boys charged with the slaying of Thomas Roy Phillips may have been enlisted because of the borderline chance of them being tried in adult court, the sources said.

A decision has not been made yet on trying the boys in adult court as one of the boys remains on the loose. The other was arrested within a day of the fatal shooting. Both face a charge of second-degree murder.

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A former sex-trade worker maintains she heard a member of the Mad Cowz street gang say he was going to take action against a member of the rival gang that operated a crack house in the West End the night that 17-year-old Phil Haiart was shot and killed.

Samantha Bone, 20, testified Wednesday she had bought some crack cocaine from a member of the Mad Cowz early in the evening of Oct. 10, 2005, when one of the members said they were going do something against a member of the rival African Mafia, who had been dealing crack from a house on McGee Street just north of Sargent Avenue.

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Portage La Prairie - A group of about 10 citizens who live near Portage Collegiate Institute made a surprise appearance at Portage la Prairie School Division's meeting last night to voice concerns about students loitering in their neighborhood.

Despite arriving unannounced, the board voted to allow Kevin Barnett 15 minutes to speak on behalf of the group.

Barnett told school trustees the neighbourhood is experiencing an increasing amount of PCI students loitering due to a policy that forces them off school property to smoke. He said the loitering has been lasting all day long and is causing issues with littering and vandalism, but the issue is much larger to Barnett.

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What's the deal with the stoner magic number?

Four-twenty. Though pot-smokers' relationship with the first 419 integers in the numerical system is decidedly indifferent, the number 420 elicits salivation, giddiness, and a rustling of Zig-Zags upon its very utterance. Now, why is that?

As April 20, the widely recognized pot-smoking holiday approaches, it's time to look at this mysterious number and try to figure out its hazy significance. If you ask four stoners what 420 means, odds are you'll get four different answers. So what's the truth?

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It's a toxic mix that puts kids at risk of explosions, fires and burns.

Dr. Milton Tenenbein, head of Manitoba's poison control centre, said these dangers top the physical harms for children living in homes where crystal meth is produced.

"These children are not living in a nurturing environment," he said. "There are endangerment issues, and these children can be the victims of physical and sexual abuse and at risk for neglect."

Tenenbein said contamination on a child's body and clothing can also trigger illness but poses a less serious risk.

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When it comes to deterring youth from using drugs, scaring them straight isn't going to work.

"Scare tactics don't work, we know that," Lori Middendorp told nurses at a pediatric nursing conference Friday at Canad Inns Polo Park.

The nurses were also told that drug and alcohol questions should be part of any health assessment.

Maria Steeds is a registered nurse who follows that advice. "You see that often the child or a family member of the child has an addiction issue."

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Triggered Fatal Retaliatory Attack

A Winnipeg gang member admits he repeatedly targeted several drug-dealing rivals with bear mace, bricks, gas bombs and guns -- actions that apparently triggered a retaliatory attack that claimed the life of innocent bystander Phil Haiart.

Yet the 17-year-old witness told jurors Thursday he hasn't been charged with a single offence for his role in a shocking incident which gripped the city.

Instead, he was called as a Crown witness to testify against Jeffrey Cansanay, who is on trial for the October 2005 killing of 17-year-old Haiart. The former St. John's-Ravenscourt student was struck down by a stray bullet as he walked in the area of Sargent Avenue and Maryland Street.

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Murder Of Trio Still Unsolved

A Hells Angels associate blames his role in the city's drug world for the still-unsolved murders of his parents and brother in St. Leon more than a year ago, a National Parole Board document says.

Denis Jerome Labossiere, currently serving a six-year prison sentence, told parole officials the November 2005 deaths of Fernand, Rita and Remi Labossiere were connected to his involvement selling drugs.

"If the board needs any indication that you were involved in a dangerous subculture, it need look no further than the tragedy surrounding the murders of your parents and brother," the parole board document said.

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