International

Court pronounces Canadian serial killer guilty of killing four women

Published

8 months ago

July 12, 2024

Court pronounces Canadian serial killer guilty of killing four women

Tearful cheers erupted in a packed Canadian courtroom on Thursday as a judge found a serial killer guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of four indigenous women.

But in the court gallery, Jeremy Contois’ reaction was reserved.

His younger sister, Rebecca, was one of the women killed in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba two years ago.

“I feel a little sense of relief,” Mr Contois said, but will not get full closure until the killer, Jeremy Skibicki, is formally sentenced.

In his oral verdict, Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal dismissed the argument by the defence at trial that the accused was not criminally responsible for the murders.

Lawyers for Skibicki, 37, said he was suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the killings.

Prosecutors argued that Skibicki deliberately killed Ms Contois and three other women in 2022 in crimes that were calculated and racially motivated.

Warning: This story contains details readers may find distressing.

The murders and the subsequent weeks-long trial sent shockwaves through Canada’s indigenous community, which has long grappled with cases of violence against their women.

Wearing a grey T-shirt and pants, Skibicki did not react as Judge Joyal read aloud the summary of his judgment.

One of Ms Contois’ family members held up a large photo of Rebecca in his direction as he left the courtroom.

“Why did I lift up her photo? Because we, as First Nations people, are not statistics,” Krista Fox said afterwards.

READ ALSO:

“Every single one of us has a name, and a family that misses us dearly.”

Skibicki’s victims are Morgan Harris, 39, Marcedes Myran, 26 and Ms Contois, who was 24. The fourth woman has yet to be identified, and has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, meaning Buffalo Woman, by indigenous elders.

Throughout the trial, a buffalo head sat on a red cloth on a table near the prosecutors in tribute to the still unidentified victim.

In his verdict, Judge Joyal said the accused failed to demonstrate he was not criminally responsible for the murders, dismissing the testimony of a British psychiatrist, Dr Sohom Das, who said Skibicki was motivated by delusions when he committed the murders.

The judge added that the “mercilessly graphic” facts of the case “are largely uncontested”, given that the accused had admitted to the murders in police interviews and in court prior to the trial.

Skibicki had pleaded not guilty due to a mental disorder.

The 100-person courtroom was packed full with the four women’s families and friends for the verdict.

Judge Joyal said the case has had an “undeniable and profound impact on the entire Manitoba community, indigenous and non-indigenous”.

With Skibicki facing life behind bars, the focus is now shifting to finding the remains of two of his victims, Ms Myran and Ms Harris, which are believed to be in a Winnipeg landfill.

A formal search has been set for this autumn, after months of pressure from their families.

‘Intentional and purposeful’ murders

According to court documents, Skibicki killed the women between March and May of 2022, with Ms Contois believed to be the final victim.

He met at least two at local homeless shelters in Winnipeg, a city of 820,000 in the prairie province.

Judge Joyal agreed with prosecutors that he deliberately targeted and exploited “vulnerable” women.

READ ALSO:

Over the course of the trial, the court heard that Skibicki had assaulted the women, strangled or drowned them and then committed sex acts on them before dismembering their bodies and disposing of them in garbage bins.

The killings went undetected for months, until a man looking for scrap metal in a bin outside Skibicki’s apartment found partial human remains in May 2022 and called police.

“She’s obviously been murdered,” the man said in the 911 call, which was played in court.

Police were able to identify the remains as those of Ms Contois.

More of her remains were discovered at a city-run landfill the following month.

In police interviews shortly after his arrest, Skibicki surprised officers by admitting to killing Ms Contois as well as three others.

At that point, police had no knowledge of the other deaths.

Speaking outside court, Ms Fox said she believes that it was only because Ms Contois’ remains were found that the other families were able to get justice.

Skibicki’s lawyers tried to argue that he was not aware of the severity of his actions due to delusions driven by schizophrenia. They argued he was hearing voices that told him to commit the crimes as part of a mission from god.

Prosecutors argued that Skibicki was fully aware of his actions, saying they were “intentional, purposeful and racially motivated”.

They demonstrated this through a mix of DNA forensic evidence, surveillance footage showing Skibicki with the women in their final days, as well as testimony from his ex-wife, who detailed a history of physical abuse.

READ ALSO:

Had Skibicki been found not criminally responsible for the four murders, it would have been a relative rarity in Canadian law.

According to data from Canada’s statistics agency and reported by the Globe and Mail newspaper, between 2000 and 2022, of 8,883,749 criminal cases prosecuted across the country, only 5,178 – or 0.06% – had such verdicts.

The case unearthed deep wounds for Canada’s indigenous community, which has long grappled with a high number of cases of their women going missing or being murdered.

According to an investigation by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Winnipeg – a city near numerous indigenous communities – had the highest number of missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada between 2018 and 2022.

Across Canada, indigenous women are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than other women, according to a 2019 inquiry.

Some indigenous women in the city remain missing, sparking fears from family members that Skibicki had more victims.

The Crown, however, said they do not believe he murdered more women.

Even with the relief of a guilty verdict, Mr Contois, Rebecca’s brother, said he still wonders why his sister – who is also a mother to a young daughter – was so brutally murdered.

“Why did he have to do it?” he said. “I wish I knew that.”

International

South African ambassador ‘no longer welcome’ in US, Rubio says

Published

1 day ago

March 15, 2025

Trends Admin

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio

South African ambassador ‘no longer welcome’ in US, Rubio says

The US is expelling South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying he is “no longer welcome in our great country”.

In a post on X, Rubio accused Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool of hating America and President Donald Trump and described him as a “race-baiting politician”.

The decision was “regrettable”, the office for South Africa’s president said on Saturday, adding that it remained committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with America.

The rare move by the US marks the latest development in rising tensions between the two countries.

In his post on Friday, Rubio linked to an article from the right-wing outlet Breitbart that quoted some of Rasool’s recent remarks made during an online lecture about the Trump administration.

“What Donald Trump is launching is an assault on incumbency, those who are in power, by mobilising a supremacism against the incumbency, at home… and abroad,” Rasool said at the event.

He added that the Maga movement was a response “to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate… is projected to become 48 percent white”.

READ ALSO:

In response, Rubio called Rasool “PERSONA NON GRATA,” referencing the Latin phrase for “unwelcome person”.

The post from Rubio came as he departed Canada from a meeting with foreign ministers.

Ties between the US and South Africa have been deteriorating since Trump took office.

The US president signed an executive order last month that freezes assistance to South Africa. The order references “egregious actions” by South Africa and cites “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners – those who descended from Dutch settlers.

The South African government has repeatedly denied this.

The order also references a new law, the Expropriation Act, that the order claims targets Afrikaners by allowing the government to take away private land.

“As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country,” according to a statement from the White House.

The government in South Africa denies its law is related to race, the Associated Press reported.

A fact sheet from the White House states the country “blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority descendants of settler groups”.

While lower-ranking diplomats are sometimes expelled, it’s highly unusual in the US for it to happen to a more senior official like a foreign ambassador, the Associated Press reported, noting neither the US nor Russia took such actions against one another even amid tensions during the Cold War.

Rasool previously served as the country’s ambassador to the US from 2010 to 2015 before being tapped again for the post in 2025.

He was born and grew up in Cape Town. When he was nine, he and his family were forcibly removed from an apartment that was declared only for white people. As he grew older, he became more interested in politics and said the eviction was a significant moment in his upbringing that guided his future.

South African ambassador ‘no longer welcome’ in US, Rubio says

BBC

International

US court to Trump: Return workers fired across agencies

Published

2 days ago

March 14, 2025

Trends Admin

US court to Trump: Return workers fired across agencies

A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to rehire thousands of workers involved in mass firings across multiple agencies.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said that the terminations were directed by the Office of Personnel Management and its acting director, Charles Ezell, who lacked the authority to do so.

The administration immediately filed an appeal of the injunction with the Ninth Circuit Court. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier Thursday cast the ruling as an attempt to encroach on executive power to hire and fire employees. “The Trump Administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order,” she said in a statement.

Alsup’s order tells the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury to immediately offer job reinstatement to employees terminated on or about Feb. 13 and 14. He also directed the departments to report back within seven days with a list of probationary employees and an explanation of how the agencies complied with his order as to each person.

The temporary restraining order came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and organizations as the Republican administration moves to reduce the federal workforce.

READ ALSO:

“These mass-firings of federal workers were not just an attack on government agencies and their ability to function, they were also a direct assault on public lands, wildlife, and the rule of law,” said Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, one of the plaintiffs.

Alsup expressed frustration with what he called the government’s attempt to sidestep laws and regulations governing a reduction in its workforce — which it is allowed to do — by firing probationary workers who lack protections and cannot appeal.

He was appalled that employees were told they were being fired for poor performance despite receiving glowing evaluations just months earlier.

“It is sad, a sad day, when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” he said. “That should not have been done in our country.”

Lawyers for the government maintain the mass firings were lawful because individual agencies reviewed and determined whether employees on probation were fit for continued employment.

But Alsup, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, has found that difficult to believe. He planned to hold an evidentiary hearing Thursday, but Ezell, the OPM acting director, did not appear to testify in court or even sit for a deposition, and the government retracted his written testimony.

READ ALSO:

US court to Trump: Return workers fired across agencies

International

Putin gives conditions for Ukraine ceasefire

Published

2 days ago

March 14, 2025

Trends Admin

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Putin gives conditions for Ukraine ceasefire

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he agreed with the idea of a ceasefire in Ukraine, but that “questions” remained about the nature of a truce as he set out a number of tough conditions.

The Russian president was responding to a plan for a 30-day ceasefire, which Ukraine agreed to earlier this week after talks with the US.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described Putin’s response to the plan as “manipulative” and called for more sanctions on Russia.

Meanwhile, the US placed further sanctions on Russian oil, gas and banking sectors.

Russian officials said Putin was expected to hold talks on the ceasefire on Thursday evening with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who had flown to Moscow earlier that day.

It is not clear whether that meeting actually took place. On Friday, Russia’s state-run media quoted the air traffic monitoring website Flightradar as saying the plane believed to be carrying Witkoff had left Moscow.

Moscow and Washington have not commented on the issue.

Late on Thursday and overnight, both Russia and Ukraine reported new enemy drone attacks.

Ukraine said seven people – including children – were injured in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv.

Russia reported a large fire at an oil facility in the southern city of Tuapse.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow on Thursday, Putin said of the ceasefire proposal: “The idea is right – and we support it – but there are questions that we need to discuss.”

READ ALSO:

A ceasefire should lead to “an enduring peace and remove the root causes of this crisis”, Putin said.

“We need to negotiate with our American colleagues and partners,” he said. “Maybe I’ll have a call with Donald Trump.”

Putin added: “It will be good for the Ukrainian side to achieve a 30-day ceasefire.

“We are in favour of it, but there are nuances.”

One of the areas of contention is Russia’s western Kursk region, Putin said, where Ukraine launched a military incursion last August and captured some territory.

He claimed Russia was fully back in control of Kursk, and said Ukrainian troops there “have been isolated”.

“They are trying to leave, but we are in control. Their equipment has been abandoned.”

“There are two options for Ukrainians in Kursk – surrender or die.”

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukrainian troops would hold defensive positions in the Kursk region “as long as it is expedient and necessary” despite “increased” pressure from Russian forces.

At Thursday’s press conference, Putin also outlined some of his questions over how a ceasefire would work. He asked: “How will those 30 days be used? For Ukraine to mobilise? Rearm? Train people? Or none of that? Then a question – how will that be controlled?”

“Who will give the order to end the fighting? At what cost? Who decides who has broken any possible ceasefire, over 2,000km? All those questions need meticulous work from both sides. Who polices it?”

Putin “doesn’t say no directly”, Zelensky said in his nightly video address, but “in practice, he’s preparing a rejection”.

“Putin, of course, is afraid to tell President Trump directly that he wants to continue this war, wants to kill Ukrainians.”

READ ALSO:

The Russian leader had set so many pre-conditions “that nothing will work out at all”, Zelensky said.

After Putin’s remarks and Zelensky’s response, there is now a clear divide between both sides’ positions.

Ukraine wants a two-stage process: a quick ceasefire and then talks about a longer-term settlement.

Russia believes you cannot separate the two processes and all the issues should be decided in a single deal. Both sides seem content to argue their differences.

Ukraine believes it can put pressure on Russia, painting it as a reluctant peacemaker, playing for time. Russia, equally, believes it has a chance now to raise its fundamental concerns, about Nato expansion and Ukraine’s sovereignty.

But this presents a problem for Donald Trump. He has made it clear he wants a quick result, ending the fighting in days.

And right now, Putin does not appear to want to play ball.

Speaking at the White House following Putin’s remarks, Trump said he would “love” to meet the Russian leader and that he hoped Russia would “do the right thing” and agree to the proposed 30-day truce.

“We’d like to see a ceasefire from Russia,” he said.

Speaking earlier at a meeting in the Oval Office with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump told reporters he had already discussed specifics with Ukraine.

“We’ve been discussing with Ukraine land and pieces of land that would be kept and lost, and all of the other elements of a final agreement,” Trump said.

“A lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed.”

On the subject of Ukraine joining the Nato military alliance, Trump said “everybody knows what the answer to that is”.

The fresh sanctions on Russian oil and gas came as the Trump administration further restricted access to US payment systems, making it harder for other countries to buy Russian oil.

Earlier in the day, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov rejected the ceasefire proposal put forward by the US.

On Wednesday, the Kremlin released a video it said showed Putin visiting Russia’s Kursk region, symbolically dressed in military fatigues. Russia later said it recaptured the key town of Sudzha.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, and now controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.

More than 95,000 people fighting for Russia’s military have been killed in the war, according to data analysed so far and confirmed by the BBC. The actual death toll is believed to be much higher.

Russia’s military has not publicly revealed its battlefield casualties since September 2022, when it said 5,937 soldiers had been killed.

Ukraine last updated its casualty figures in December 2024, when Zelensky acknowledged 43,000 Ukrainian deaths among soldiers and officers. Western analysts believe this figure to be underestimated.