The
prosecution at the sentencing hearing of former Common Councillor Donnie
Snook is recommending he get 21 years in prison and serve at least
half.
He is
described as being on the high end of a moderate risk to reoffend
although he is willing to participate in rehabilitation treatment.
The
court was told he did not empathise with his victims and did not have an
emotional relationship with them....It was just about the sex.
One of
the victims was Snook's own foster child whom he used to get access to
other children and he had unprotected sex with many of the young
people.
The
court also heard that because he was offering money, some of the young
people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds approached him to trade
sex for cash.
The
sentencing hearing of former Saint John Common Councillor Donnie Snook has been
told he was sexually abused as a child himself and has poor coping
skills to deal with his lonliness and personal losses.
Dr. Mary
Ann Campbell told the court Snook felt better while sexually abusing
the young people but regretted it afterwards. 11 children were hands on
victims of sexual abuse while 4 others were victimised online.
Prosecutor
Karen Lee Lamrock says she calculated what Snook should serve by
offense, it worked out to 75 years in prison but she's recommending 21
years. Snook showed no emotion after hearing what her recommendation is.
Quebec
Premier Pauline Marois appears to be supportive of the West to East
pipeline project that would move Alberta crude east to Saint John.
In the
past, Marois has shown an openness to the idea of permitting oilsands
bitumen to travel across her province, saying it could benefit Quebec
because it would supply oil refineries in Montreal.
She says the Alberta oilsands bitumen would be cheaper than oil purchased from abroad.
The Parti Quebecois government will begin a formal examination of the proposal next month.
Another
good financial year for NB Power.........For the third consecutive year,
NB Power is reporting positive financial results with net earnings of
$69 million in 2012-13.
By
comparison, in 2011-12, net earnings amounted to 173 million dollars and
in 2010-11, the crown corporation finished the year with net earnings
of 67 million dollars.
NB Power's debt at the end of the year rose by about $180 million to $4.7 billion.
Bizarre
and disturbing facts continue to come to light regarding former Saint John Common
Councillor Donnie Snook's crimes against children.
The
facts in the 46 counts against Snook include blackmail, coercion, and
attempts to secretly spy on and film kids as young 5 and 6 in the nude.
Snook
admitted posing online as a girl, getting nude pictures from boys, then
blackmailing them to send more--to the degree that one victim even
threatened commit suicide. Snook not only did not stop, but later
contacted the victim's 7 year old brother to further harass him. The
court also heard Snook--a non-drinker--stocked his home with alcohol and
allowed the children to drink and use drugs.
Numerous complaints were made against Snook by children and parents but no charges were laid.
The
court will be hearing recommendations for sentencing on Friday. Victim
impact statements will also will read, one of them by the victim himself
and the results of a psychological profile will be heard.
A new round of layoffs at Radian 6 are not good news in a province where jobs are hard to come by.
Salesforce,
the company's parent company, announcing it's cutting 200 jobs to its
global workforce, more than 60 in New Brunswick.
Premier David Alward was asked about it while in the City and says the information was not confirmed for him.
NDP
leader Dominic Cardy says the layoffs were yet another indication that
the economic development ideas of the Alward government and the Liberal
opposition need to be scrapped.
Meanwhile, the premier says
significant accountability mechanisms are in place between the province
and any company that has received payroll rebates and he has full
confidence that the companies will live up to their responsibilities
under the agreement.
Just
over a year ago, Radian 6 received a $3.8-million payroll rebate offer
to help create 300 full-time jobs in Fredericton and Saint John over
five years.
As the sentencing hearing continues, we are hearing Donnie Snook devised elaborate
games & tricks to have kids undress and film them without their
knowledge.
One of the victim's behaviour became so out-of-control he was placed in foster care.
One
child's mother alerted police to odd behaviour on Snook's part including
taking kids out until wee hours and bringing them home drunk.
The court heard Snook bribed his victims with money, trips and alcohol and allowed them to take drugs in his presence.
Word spread among the kids that if you let Snook do certain things to you, you might get paid.
The
Canadian Taxpayers Federation, using the Right to Information Act, to
make the claim that provincial government employees take 50 per cent
more sick days than the rest of us......10.7 sick days a year compared
to 7.1 in the private sector last year.
The
Federation's Atlantic Director is Kevin Lacey who tells Tide News the
sick days taken by just the core workers employed by the province costs
about 14 million dollars.
The
Federation also revealing unionised employees ran up 60 per cent more
sick time per employee than the non-unionised workers.
As for federal government employees, Lacey says they're taking even more time off sick than their provincial counterparts.
It has
been a disturbing day in court as Crown Prosecutor Karen Lee Lamrock
presented the facts of 46 child sex abuse charges again former Saint John common
councillor Donnie Snook.
More
than 14, 400 unique child sexual abuse images were found in Snook's
possession along with more than 600 child porn vidoes--and only some
victims have been identified.
Former Friend Darrell Bastarache tells Tide News he expected to see more visible emotion from Snook as the
court heard the evidence, stating that those in the gallery seem to be
in more pain than Snook.
The
court heard Snook bribed his victims with money, alcohol and trips--and
claimed while he would stop sexual activity if his victims complained,
some of them seemed to "enjoy" the abuse. Further, Snook admitted to
having "groomed" at least one child over a period of 7 years from ages
9-14 to eventually take part in the abuse of other children. Many of the
incidents are believed to have occurred when Snook's roommate was also
at home, and the former church leader can be heard in the videos
"shushing" the victims.
The
sexual abuse images were found on a range of electronic media including a
laptop, thumb drive and SD card. Some of the abuse videos were filmed
with an iPad provided to Snook by the City of Saint John.
We are
now learning more about the evidence gathered against former Common
Councillor Donnie Snook at his sentencing hearing on 46 charges of child
abuse and exploitation.
The prosecution claims there are thousands of victims.
More
than 14 thousand 400 unique child sexual abuse images were found in
Snook's possession along with more than 600 videos of child
pornography.
Videotaped webcam sessions and movies were also recovered.
There was some sadistic and fetish content but few and far between. Most of the images were of children posing alone.
Snook showed no emotion as all this was being shown.
The
Atlantic Convenience Stores Association claims the sale of Illegal
tobacco remains a big problem in the province. That conclusion is based
on a new study the Association commissioned.
Association
President Mike Hammoud says a Montreal-based research firm collected
more than 3,000 cigarette butts in June from 23 locations across the
province including Sussex, Fredericton and Saint John.
The firm found, on average, 15.7 per cent of the butts were from contraband cigarettes.
In Grand Falls, more than 40 per cent of the butts were contraband and the rate was almost 20 per cent at 10 school sites.
Nearly
2,500 patients will be notified following Horizon Health's discovery
that unsterilized biopsy forceps were used at a hospital clinic for 14
years.
The problem at a colposcopy clinic at the Miramichi Regional Hospital began in 1999 and was discovered this May.
CEO John McGarry says the biopsy forceps were only cleaned and
disinfected before being reused but sterilized at the end of the day.
McGarry advises there is an extremely low risk of infection, but 2,497
patients who had these biopsies are being sent letters to advise them to
have blood tests for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.
The province and the Teacher's federation have a new deal.
The new collective agreement applies to more than 9,000 teachers, supply teachers, vice-principals and principals.
The four-year deal provides for two years of zero-per-cent increases, followed by one-per-cent increases every six months.
