Blogs Raise a Little Hell

Remember the guy released from Headingley jail last week who justice officials warned us about? Brett Russell Jeffrey Pilch, the guy with a 17-year criminal record for sexual offences against women?

It’s the third time since 2008 this criminal has been released from jail under the province’s sexual offender notification reporting system.

Yes, the THIRD time.

Pilch, 46, is considered a high-risk to become involved in further sex offences.

Females are at risk of sexual harassment as well as possible physical sexual abuse.

This is a quote from his rap sheet:

“Pilch has a history of sexual offences in relation to females, usually young adult women. Although he has participated in sexual offender treatment in the past, Pilch is still considered a high risk to re-offend.  Females are at risk of sexual harassment as well as possible physical sexual violence.”

So why in hell do we keep letting this guy out?

He was released under notification Oct. 17, 2008. He was back in jail and released again May 13, 2010. After another court-order breach he was back behind bars and released yet again with the latest warning Jan 31, 2012.

What did Einstein say about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? Pretty much sums up our justice system.

Here’s a picture of Pilch when he was first released in 2008 with a warning to females that he’s a high risk to re-offend.

Here’s Pilch again when he was released in 2010, still a high-risk to re-offend.

Uh, oh. This guy doesn’t learn his lesson. Here’s Pilch once again released Jan. 31, 2012 and yes, he’s still a high-risk to re-offend.

In case you missed the last few sex offender notifications, here are a few scum bags to look out for. These are the last three sex offenders released by our so-called justice system that government and cops are warning us about. They are all at risk of re-offending, we’re told. Why do we let them out then? Not sure.

This is David Lewis Leriche, 52. His information is below. This was posted Dec. 9, 2011.

The Manitoba Integrated High Risk Offender Unit (MIHRSOU) is a joint forces unit of the Winnipeg Police Service and the RCMP.  MIHRSOU today provides information regarding David Lewis LERICHE, 52 years of age, a convicted sex offender who is considered a high risk to become involved in further sexual offences against female children.

LERICHE will be released from Stony Mountain Institution in Stony Mountain, Manitoba on December 9, 2011. He is expected to take up residence in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Although LERICHE participated in some sex offender treatment while in prison, he is still considered a high risk to re-offend sexually.  Female children are at risk.

David Lewis LERICHE was born August 27, 1959 is 5’10” tall (178 cm), weighs 200 lbs (91 kg), has black hair, hazel eyes, is Caucasian with a tattoo of a ribbon with Bev and Dave on his left upper arm, a Yosemite Sam tattoo on his left shoulder and an Appendix scar on his abdomen.

This information is provided to enable members of the public to take suitable measures to protect themselves.  Any form of vigilante activity or other unreasonable conduct directed at David Lewis LERICHE will not be tolerated.

If you have information about Leriche and wish to speak directly to a police officer, please call MIHRSOU at 984-1888.

Background information:

David Lewis LERICHE, a 52 year-old male, was arrested on August 14, 2004 and remained in custody until December 13, 2004.  On that date, he was convicted of a number of sexual offences and received a total sentence of 7 years in addition to 4 months of pre-sentence custody.

LERICHE will be released from Federal Custody from the Stony Mountain Institution in Stony Mountain, Manitoba on December 9, 2011. He was held to warrant expiry on this charge. That is, he was not granted any form of parole.

Upon release, LERICHE is prohibited for 10 years from being in possession of any weapons and firearms. In addition, LERICHE is subject to a recognizance order restricting his conduct, subject to a pending hearing for a longer term recognizance order, which includes the following conditions:

• Abstain absolutely from the consumption or possession of alcohol or any illegal drug, non-prescription drug or any substance that will cause a person to become intoxicated.
• Observe a curfew between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. except for verifiable medical emergencies or with special permission in writing, obtained in advance, from his Probation Officer.
• Refrain from all contact with his victims and their immediate families.
• Refrain from any contact with, or be in the presence of, any female person actually or apparently under the age of 16 years.
• Refrain from attending a public park or swimming area where persons under the age of 16 are present or can reasonably be expected to be present, including a day care center, a school ground, or a playground.
• Refrain from possessing or accessing any pornography or showing any pornography to any person.
• Refrain from engaging in any activity, including any employment or volunteer activity that involves contact with persons under the age of 16 years, including using a computer system for the purpose of communicating with a person under that age.
• Refrain from possessing, operating or having any control or access whatsoever to any computer or Internet amenities no matter where they may be located except with prior written approval by Probation Services and a member of MIHRSOU.
• Refrain from using a computer or other device for the purpose of communicating with a person under the age of 16 years.
• Refrain from entering or conversing with any electronic bulletin boards, internet chat rooms, telephone chat lines or telephone sex services.

He is expected to take up residence in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

This is Donald Batenchuk, 41, released in November 2011. His information is below:

The Manitoba Integrated High Risk Offender Unit (MIHRSOU) is a joint forces unit of the Winnipeg Police Service and the RCMP.  MIHRSOU today provides information regarding Donald Maclai BATENCHUK, 41 years of age, a convicted sex offender who is considered a high risk to become involved in further sexual offences against women and female children and violent offences generally. Batenchuk’s victims have often been random strangers.

BATENCHUK will be released from Federal custody from the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on November 8, 2011. He is expected to take up residence in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Upon release, BATENCHUK will be subject to a long-term supervision order until November 8, 2021.

BATENCHUK has a history of sexual offences in relation to women and female children including Sexual Assault with a Weapon, Sexual Interference, Uttering Threats and Forcible Entry as well as other criminal offences.  Although BATENCHUK participated in some sex offender treatment while in prison, he is still considered a high risk to re-offend.   Women and female children are at risk.

BATENCHUK  was born November 5, 1969 is 6’1” tall (186 cm), weighs 251 lbs (114 kg), has black hair, brown eyes, is First Nations, has tattoos of a skull on his right upper arm, ‘corky’ on his left forearm, and a ‘mac’ below a cross on his right forearm.  He is missing his small toe on his right foot.

This information is provided to enable members of the public to take suitable measures to protect themselves.  Any form of vigilante activity or other unreasonable conduct directed at Mr. BATENCHUK will not be tolerated.

If you have information about Batenchuk and wish to speak directly to a police officer, please call MIHRSOU at 984-1888.

Background information:

Donald Maclai BATENCHUK, a 41 year-old male, has a prior criminal record that includes 2 counts of Sexual Assault with a Weapon, Sexual Interference, Assault with a Weapon, 2 counts of Uttering Threats, 3 counts of Break and Enter Theft, 2 counts of Break Enter and Commit, Forcible Entry, Fail to Comply with Probation Order as well as other criminal offences.

BATENCHUK’S most recent conviction arose from an incident which occurred on August 14, 2002. BATENCHUK sexually assaulted an adult female while holding a knife to her throat and threatening to kill her. BATENCHUK was arrested on August 14. 2002 and remained in custody until May 10, 2006.  On that date, he was sentenced for Sexual Assault with a Weapon. He received a total sentence of 10 years with credit given for the equivalent of 54 months pre-sentence custody.

BATENCHUK will be released from Federal Custody from the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on November 8, 2011. He was held to warrant expiry on this charge. That is, he was not granted any form of parole.

Upon release, BATENCHUK will be subject to a court order for ten years where he is prohibited from consuming alcohol and drugs other than prescribed medication and having any contact with the victim of his last offence; and be required to participate in psychological counselling and sex offender and other recommended programming, reside at an approved Community Correctional Center and return to that facility nightly, and report all relationships with females to his parole officer.

In addition, BATENCHUK is prohibited for the remainder of his life from being in possession of any weapons and firearms. BATENCHUK is also required to register as a sex offender pursuant to the sexual offender registry provisions in the Criminal Code.

BATENCHUK participated in some sex offender treatment programs while in prison.  However, he is still considered a high risk to re-offend sexually and violently.  Adult females and female children are at risk. Batenchuk’s victims have often been strangers.

He is expected to take up residence in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

It’s been almost two years since the federal Conservatives proclaimed its Truth in Sentencing legislation.

And despite predictions by the soft-on-crime crowd — that federal prisons across Canada would bust at the seams as a result of this new law — nothing of the sort has happened.

The Truth in Sentencing law bans the use of 2-1 credit judges had been giving criminals for pre-sentence time served. Under the new law, judges can only give 1-1 credit for time served, or 1.5-1 in rare cases.

That was supposed to cause prison populations to skyrocket, according to groups like the John Howard Society.

But so far, it hasn’t happened.

Prison populations this week, according to senior officials in Correctional Services Canada, stood at 14,800. That’s down 35 inmates from the last time we reported on this four months ago. In September, 2011 we told you there were 14,835 inmates in the system.

According to projections CSC officials released over two years ago, the new law was suppose to see the prison population soar to 17,800 by this time. It hasn’t happened.

And, oh, by the way, the prison capacity is 15,033. So we’re still under capacity.

Granted, there are still cases that began before the truth in sentencing law came into effect which have not made it through the court process yet. Those cases will still be subject to the former sentencing provisions. That’s why you still hear about some criminals getting 2-1 credit.

The law isn’t retroactive. But those cases are slowly winding their way through the system.

We’ll keep you posted. But so far, all the fearmongering about prison populations going through the roof have not materialized.

Not even close, actually.

Sounds like this Hydro employee could recommend a thing or two to today’s modern Hydro worker:

Hi Tom,

My apologies for bothering you, but I had to reply to your article in today’s Sun about Manitoba Hydro’s increase in staff,and customer service.

As an employee of Manioba Hydro for 41 years,the last 33 years spent as a journeyman lineman in a District Serviceman in Virden,having retired approx. 2 years ago due to health issues.

I was from the “old school”,where customer service was most important,and I worked my 41 years trying to provide the best customer service I could, and very, very proud to wear my hydro uniform, and drive a truck with a hydro logo.

That service meant not only regular customer service,but also keeping the power on,which meant working in every imagineable weather possible,working however hours it took to get people back on, and driving on ice,in blizzards,when the highways were closed,and we were the only ones out on the roads.

That customer service has gone out of the window,young people today work for “the paycheque”, and since I’ve retired, staff levels have increased,customer service decreased,with a lot of “yes men” running the show,and some of the changes make me ill. I miss my job,I miss working,I loved my job,but my friends still working tell me if I came back, was a happy worker, I would be the only one.

Thank you for reading my piece.Thanks so much,I love your paper,it is the best one in Manitoba,and I like your articles.

Take care,be well,be safe

End of email. So, any comments Hydro staff? Especially high-ranking middle management types? We would like to hear from you.

With a staggering operating deficit of $841 million, you’d think adding a new stand-alone department would be the furthest thing from the mind of Premier Greg Selinger.

But not this premier. Selinger has created a brand new government department called Children and Youth Opportunities. The new minister of the department is rookie NDP MLA Kevin Chief.

It remains to be seen what type of budget this new department will have. Selinger told us after the swearing in ceremony Friday that we’ll have to wait for the budget to find out how much money Chief will have to play with.

But presumably the new department will have a deputy minister, some ADMs, other senior officials and a mountain of new pencil pushers. All of that costs money.

It’s yet another tentacle added to this government’s already monstrous bureaucracy. And it’s going to cost taxpayers big-time.

And for what? To duplicate services already provided in education, health care, healthy living, sport and family services?

Sounds like they just wanted to create a new portfolio for Chief.

The Selinger government is sure taking this pre-budget consultation thing seriously. They announced Monday they would be holding a series of consultations to get input from the public on the 2012 budget.

And when did they hold their first and only pre-budget consultation for the south part of Winnipeg? On Monday. Yeah, they’re really interested in getting Winnipeggers out to these meetings. The only other pre-budget consultation scheduled for Winnipeg is on Jan. 18 in the city’s North End.

I guess when you have a part-time finance minister, you can’t expect much more than that. Stand Struthers is Manitoba’s agriculture minister. But he was also given the finance portfolio after former finance minister Rosann Wowchuk retired from politics last year.

Not sure how Struthers can give the attention required to the troubled finance portfolio — the province is running an $841-million deficit right now — and be an effective ag minister at the same time.

He certainly isn’t taking the pre-budget consultation part of the budget process very seriously. If they were serious about getting input from Manitobans, they would have advertised these events weeks ago and given the public proper notice.

Obviusly they’re not.

Irene Hamilton has stepped down as Manitoba’s ombudsman. And no, she’s not retiring. She’s accepted a newly-created bureaucratic position in Manitoba Justice called “director of justice innovation.”

That’s just what we needed in the system, isn’t it? Another over-paid bureaucrat heading a new branch in Manitoba Justice with support staff and other new costs? You’d never know the Selinger government was running a half-billion-dollar deficit right now, not with this kind of out-of-control spending.

So what will Hamilton — a former Manitoba public trustee — do in this new position? The new branch will be responsible for “streamlining processes within the justice system while ensuring it remains fair and effective,” says a government news release.

Streamlining processes? Really? I could streamline the process right now. Stop creating new bureaucratic positions and start cutting bureaucratic fat out of the department.

Seriously, does anyone really believe Hamilton and a new office of pencil pushers will really streamline anything in the province’s justice system?

Don’t count on it.

Premier Greg Selinger says he “hopes” the Occupy Winnipeg squatters don’t return in the spring to take over Memorial Park.

He hopes? How about he plans to “enforce” provincial park rules and make sure these morons don’t come back in the spring and take over what is a popular and well-used park.

Because I guarantee you at least some of these so-called protesters will show up with their tents, bongos and bails of hay and try to make this downtown park home for the summer.

Especially if the guy in charge of government — Greg — is sending out spineless messages that he “hopes” they don’t return in the spring.

Selinger makes it sound as if these people have some sort of right to take over a downtown park and litter it with tents, garbage bags and placards and that he doesn’t have any authority to stop it from happening. He “hopes” it doesn’t happen.

You don’t say you “hope” they don’t return. You say “don’t return” and if you do, our officials will confiscate the first tent that goes up.

Enough with treating these guys with kid gloves.

Winnipeg police Sgt. Doug Safioles says photo radar is warranted on streets like Grant Avenue because, he claims,  there is a lot of speeding and crashes on those roadways.

He was commenting on allegations the money-making cameras are dispensing bogus tickets to motorists, either because the equipment is malfunctioning or because it’s rigged.

“These are places where there’s collisions and there’s constant speeding,” said Safioles.

They are? How do you know? Because every time we ask the city for collision data where photo radar is used, they tell us they don’t have it.

So how could Safioles possibly know anything about the numbers of collisions there, including whether they’ve gone up or down in recent years?

“My comment to people is if we’ve been here every day for years, why are you still speeding through here?” said Safioles.

What? They’ve been using photo radar in this area for years and people are still speeding? I thought photo radar was making our streets safer by encouraging drivers to slow down? So it’s not working?

The truth is, Safioles hasn’t a clue whether collisions are up or down in the area in question because the city says it doesn’t have the data.

C’mon Doug, just say it. We all know it anyway. This is about money, not safety. At least be honest with the public about this cash grab.

No wonder our government automobile insurance company claims that approved immobilizers in cars are never defeated.

We just found that if someone tampers with an immobilizer in a vehicle and “defeats” it, Manitoba Public Insurance doesn’t consider that the immobilizer was actually defeated.

Pardon?

Following our story this week about how a Winnipeg man was falsely accused by MPI of trying to “steal” his own car to defraud the Crown corporation, the company’s spokesperson Brian Smiley had this to say about MPI’s position that approved immobilizers are never defeated.

“It’s important to distinguish that the immobilizer in the vehicle named in the article was a factory-equipped immobilizer,” wrote Smiley in an email responding to a Winnipeg Sun query.  “It was not an aftermarket immobilizer.”

Yeah we know that. That’s what I reported. That’s not the point.

The point was MPI tried to prosecute a guy and accused him of stealing his own vehicle — which was equipped with a factory immobilizer —  because MPI claimed the immobilizer could not be defeated.

The accused had both his ignition keys with him when the vehicle was stolen. So MPI concluded he must have stolen the vehicle himself.

They were wrong.

Both a mechanic and an MPI immoblizer “expert” were able to start the vehicle in question without the ignition key.

They were able to do so because the immobilizer had been tampered with.

However, the MPI expert said the vehicle should not have started at all if it was tampered with. So MPI’s case fell apart and the accused was acquitted.

Which gets us to the question of how many other immobilizers are defeated where thieves tamper with the anti-theft device and steal the vehicle?

“When it’s determined that an immobilizer has malfunctioned, or been removed, or tampered with, MPI does not consider the immobilizer as having been ‘defeated,’” wrote Smiley.

Huh? If a thief knows how to tamper with an immobilizer in order to steal the vehicle, he has in fact “defeated” the immobilizer. That’s what defeating means.

So it appears MPI’s claims all these years that you can’t defeat approved immobilizers is bunk.

Their own “expert” just proved it.