'What is it going to take?': Business owner says police must do more to crack down on arson, extortion
CBC
A group of Winnipeg business owners who have banded together after their businesses were allegedly targeted by arson and extortion say police need to act before someone gets hurt.
The owners have formed an online group chat to share information with each other about the criminals they say have been aiming at them for months.
Group members say they believe they know who's extorting them, and want police to act before the violence escalates.
"What is it going to take? Like, at some point maybe someone gets killed, maybe someone gets stuck in one of these businesses when it's burning," one of them told CBC News.
"If [police] know that these individuals are involved, if you already got them on camera doing certain jobs, if you put the pressure to them, there's a good chance they'll say … who they're working for."
The owner said he was told he had to pay protection money or else his business would be targeted. CBC News is not naming anyone in the group because they fear retaliation for speaking up.
Members say their businesses are set on fire when they refuse to pay protection money to people who threaten them and try to extort them.
They say a recent arson in Winnipeg's Weston neighbourhood shows how the criminals operate.
Footage sent by one of them shows two masked men walking into Logan Convenience early on Tuesday.
One of them douses the floor with what appears to be gasoline as the other forces an employee out of the store. They then light it on fire.
CBC News has verified the video is from the store.
"When I'm watching the video, I'm like, OK, they're going to take the money," the group member said.
"They didn't care less about the cash register. You can see that they clearly were sent in there for one reason and one reason only, and that was to burn that place down."
Some of the owners say they don't want to reopen because they're afraid the extortion efforts will continue. Others have even moved out of the province out of concern for their safety.
Missing baby presumed dead after father charged with killing mother in St. Albert, Alta., police say
A man is facing charges in the death of a young mother in the Edmonton area and the presumed death of their missing nine-month-old daughter.
A school trustee in Prince George, B.C., says she's shaken and scared after being surrounded by police with their guns drawn and then put in handcuffs, in what RCMP say was a case of mistaken identity.
Despite an eleventh hour attempt to secure at least a few more weeks of freedom, a Calgary dentist was handed a three-year prison sentence for a decade-long insurance billing fraud.
Canada Computers & Electronics says a data breach has leaked information about some of its customers, though several say they are unhappy with the scant details the retailer has provided — including how many of them were affected, and when the breach occurred.
The city of Toronto is shutting down a yacht club on the Humber River in Etobicoke that is accused of having negative impacts on the local ecosystem.
Some public safety experts say the N.W.T. government’s failure to regulate the security profession and mandate training for guards is putting people at risk.
U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to slap a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian aircraft and says his administration will "decertify" planes made by Canadian aerospace company Bombardier.
A new non-stop route between Calgary and Abu Dhabi is set to launch later this year, becoming the only direct flight from Western Canada to the United Arab Emirates.
U.S. authorities alerted the RCMP about Ryan Wedding's imminent arrest days before he was taken into U.S. custody in Mexico last week, Commissioner Mike Duheme has told CBC News.
Ontario’s police watchdog says it is not investigating the case of a lawyer who is alleging that multiple Durham Regional Police Service officers slammed her head on a desk without provocation and dragged her to the basement cells of the Oshawa courthouse last week.
Warning: This story deals with suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, you can find resources for help at the bottom of this story.
Shilo Nosyk was camping with friends and family last summer in Alberta's Elbow-Sheep Wildland Provincial Park when her then-15-year-old son's throat started to close.
Daniel Martell, the stepfather of two Nova Scotia children who disappeared nearly nine months ago, has been charged with sexual assault, assault and forcible confinement, CBC News has learned.