WorkSafeBC investigates death of worker after accident with meat slicer
HALIFAX — The husband of Nova Scotia’s immigration minister is undergoing a 45-day psychiatric assessment after being declared not criminally responsible for allegedly assaulting, threatening and choking his wife on New Year’s Eve.
Chris Hansen of the Public Prosecution Service said Friday that Maroun Diab was deemed not criminally responsible after undergoing an earlier psychiatric evaluation.
The results of the current assessment will be provided to the Criminal Review Board, which will decide how to proceed, she said.
“He was sent for a 45-day assessment and then he will come back to the Criminal Review Board and they will decide the next steps,” she said.
Diab had been released on a series of conditions in January, including one prohibiting him from having any contact with his wife, Lena Diab, and two other people. His lawyer, Mark Knox, said at the
EDMONTON — A mentally ill Edmonton man who stabbed two coworkers to death and badly injured four others has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Jayme Pasieka attacked the men in February 2014 at a grocery warehouse where they all worked.
A jury earlier this month found him guilty of murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault.
Before the sentence was handed down, court heard emotional impact statements from relatives of the two men killed.
The Crown said it could not ask that Pasieka’s parole eligibility be doubled, because the crime must be balanced with his mental illness.
Pasieka stared into space as the defence asked that he serve his time at a federal psychiatric facility.
Thierno Bah, 41, and Fitzroy Harris, time that he was later admitted to hospital under the province’s Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Act.
He also faced two counts of threatening two other people.
Halifax police said he was arrested early New Year’s Day after they received a call shortly before midnight from the Diabs’ home near Mount Saint Vincent University.
Lena Diab later described the incident as a “very tragic, sad, private and personal matter,” and publicly thanked the community for supporting her and her family of four children and one grandchild.
Diab’s office referred questions Friday to the Liberal caucus office, which did not respond to requests for comment.
Lena Diab, a lawyer and business owner, was appointed Nova Scotia’s first female justice minister after winning office in October 2013, and was named to the immigration portfolio in 2015. 50, were killed.
Much of the case focused on whether Pasieka, who has schizophrenia, was capable of planning the attack and intended to kill his co-workers.
Pasieka, who testified in his own defence, said he had given up on life, was hearing voices and hoped that if he stabbed people he would get the help he needed. A forensic psychiatrist testified that Pasieka would have understood that inflicting severe injury on someone would have led to death. The psychiatrist also said Pasieka was capable of exercising free will and making choices.
MONTREAL — Bombardier needs to respond to the shock it created among citizens and elected officials regarding the dramatic increases in executive pay at the company, senior Quebec Liberal ministers said Friday.
The aerospace giant needs to review its compensation policy in light of the fact the company is receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies yet awarded a nearly 50 per cent pay increase to six top executives in 2016, said Economy Minister Dominique Anglade.
“I am inviting the company to act in a way that reflects the actual situation and the understanding of the issue that was created,” she said.
Total compensation for the Montreal-based manufacturer’s top five executives and board chairman Pierre Beaudoin was US$32.6 million in 2016, up from US$21.9 million the year before.
The Quebec government gave Bombardier (TSX:BBD.B) roughly US$1 billion in 2016 while the federal government recently announced a $372.5-million loan package for the firm’s CSeries and Global 7000 aircraft programs.
Anglade said she is not questioning the merit of her government’s aid package, saying it was necessary to create jobs and help the plane maker with its CSeries program.
She said, however, “the decision that (Bombardier) took shocked the population — and with reason.”
Finance Minister Carlos Leitao also weighed in following a speech in Montreal on Friday, adding that he also “invites the board of directors to review its executive compensation policy.”
Bombardier did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
In its regulatory filing, Bombardier attributed the higher compensation to a number of factors, including achieving profit and cash flow targets, securing CSeries orders and completing the first flight of the Global 7000 business jet.
However, Claude Beland, former head of the Desjardins Group as well as a shareholder rights association, told The Canadian Press in an interview that Bombardier’s executive compensation is “excessive” and “indecent.”
He called on Bombardier shareholders to show up to the company’s annual meeting on May 11 and oppose the executive pay decision in person.
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. — WorkSafeBC says a restaurant worker in New Westminster has died after falling onto a meat slicer.
Safety agency spokesman Scott McCloy says an investigation is underway after the worker’s arm was nearly severed.
McCloy says in a statement the worker fell onto the machine on March 22 at the Rivers Reach Pub while it was being serviced.
First aid was administered and the man, who has not been named, was rushed to hospital but McCloy says he could not be revived. Postmedia Wire Services