Last year – Winnipeg Police got a search warrant for an illegal hobo shack on the riverbank in the East Exchange District seemingly operating a bicycle chop shop.
Last week – Marty Gold had an exclusive interview with the lawyer of one of the accused, after the controversial case was dropped by the Crown.
This week – We review a letter sent to the Winnipeg Sun by police chief Gene Bowers after the warrant was acquired- and in Episode 25 ask listeners to judge whether Bowers owes the citizens of Winnipeg an apology after the case fell apart.
Part 1- A brief recap of Marty’s report on Sunday about a family told they could leave by employees at an East Kildonan pool after they complained abouta pair of “absolutely perfectly symmetrical” breast implants being paraded around by a topless male.
Then, an explanation of how his reports about the distortion of annual crime statistics and subsequent interview with lawyer Martin Glazer about the flawed riverbank investigation were incorporated into Kevin Klein’s excellent column “Winnipeg’s crime statistics no longer reflect lived reality.”
The publisher of the Sun, Klein stated- “When administrative and legal outcomes become the filter through which crime is counted, the statistics stop reflecting what actually happened in this city. They reflect what the system managed to process and prove… The question worth asking is not whether crime is down on paper. It is whether the paper reflects the street.”
Every city council candidate should be required to read it and respond.
20.05 Part 2– “The article by Mr. Gold demands a repsonse by the Winnipeg Police Service” wrote chief Bowers to the Winnipeg Sun last September, “and Inspector Helen Peters deserves an apology from its author and publisher.”
Bowers called the column questioning Peter’s qualifications to manage the investigation and evaluate if a warrant was needed “a personal attack by a media outlet (that) does not align with the principles of ethical journalism nor does it serve the public interest.”
As you will hear, considering the flaws Mr. Glazer identified in both the warrant and the investigation – which failed to link the accused to either the shack or to any stolen goods as charged- the last thing Bowers should have been doing was spouting off about how journalists covered the actions of his staff.
Bowers and his predecessor, Danny ‘Hug-a-Thug’ Smyth allowed the mayhem generated by illegal encampments to proliferate and endanger public safety. Was that “ethical”?
Meanwhile, the Winnipeg Sun led the way in exposing the violence, theft, and environmental damage allowed by police and elected officials – including former mayor Brian Bowman and then Scott Gillingham – to degrade the quality of life for residents and business owners in the North End, Point Douglas, Downtown, West Broadway, Fort Rouge and West End neighborhoods.
35.55– The failure of the high-profile case has attracted the attention of legal minds across Canada, and has resulted in some good questions being raised about how Bowers and his staff could be held accountable. Listen to the potential pathways for members of the public to do so- even if Mayor Gillingham and City Councillors won’t.
As Kevin Klein wrote– “When major enforcement operations fall apart in court, police leadership should explain what went wrong rather than go silent. Accountability is not a political attack. It is basic governance.”
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