Grandparents of bomb victim relieved accused finally on trial

Selkirk-area couple struggle with senseless death; learning to deal with loss

RECORD PHOTOS BY AUSTIN GRABISH

Alice and John Shachtay are relieved the trial of their granddaughter’s accused killer has begun. Vicky Shachtay, 23, seen in the above pictures, was killed after she opened a bomb disguised as a Christmas gift.

By Austin Grabish, The Selkirk Record

The grandparents of a disabled woman who was killed after opening a bomb disguised as a Christmas present are thankful their granddaughter’s accused killer is finally on trial.

Brian Malley’s seven-week jury trial began last Monday in Red Deer, Alta.

Malley, 57, faces charges of first-degree murder, causing an explosion of an explosive substance likely to cause serious bodily harm, and sending a person an explosive device in relation to the 2011 killing of Victoria Shachtay.

Malley has pleaded not guilty to the charges and he is presumed innocent.

Shachtay’s grandparents, Alice and John Shachtay, who live north of Selkirk, read daily newspaper reports on the trial.

“It’s a little hard but at the beginning it was harder,” said Alice Shachtay, Victoria’s grandma.

“Now it’s starting to kind of wear off so that I can at least now read it. Before I couldn’t read half of it and I was crying.”

But the elderly couple quickly sobs when looking at a picture of their granddaughter, whom they refer to as Vicky.  

Vicky Shachtay was a young, 23-year-old single mother who was killed after she opened a gun-powdered pipe bomb left on her Innisfail doorstep. The bomb was put into a Christmas box with her name on it, an Alberta jury heard last week. 

Malley was arrested in Red Deer in 2012 in relation to the explosion that killed Shachtay a year earlier.

Alberta prosecutor Anders Quist said DNA found on the package is consistent with Malley’s.

The prosecutor said over the course of the trial the Crown intends to call witnesses who will testify Malley purchased items needed to make the pipe bomb, which killed Shachtay.

He added he will call witnesses who found the materials used to make a pipe bomb in Malley’s residence.

Quist said after Shachtay got into a car crash in 2004, she received a $575,000 settlement and Malley helped her invest it.

But all of that money was gone in four years, he said.

Quist said after the settlement money was gone, Malley supported Shachtay from his own personal accounts to the tune of $44,000.

The Red Deer Express reported Quist telling a court, “Our theory is that Mr. Malley killed her to cut his losses.”

Defense lawyer Bob Aloneissi said evidence the defense will produce will raise reasonable doubt Malley was involved in Shachtay’s murder.

Media reports say Aloneissi plans to show some of Shachtay’s relatives had addiction problems and the real killer was someone who wanted to send a message to Shachtay or her family.

Malley had no control of Shachtay’s finances and said those close to her knew she was going broke quick, Aloneissi told the court.

While lawyers battle it out in court Alice and John cherish memories of Vicky. 

“Vicky was with us once and a while,” said Alice Shachtay.

“She was very quiet, she liked to be by herself for most of the time that I could see,” Shachtay said.

“She wasn’t a person to be like some kids and jump around.”

John Shachtay said regardless of the trial’s outcome he has a desperate plea to the public.

“You put in that paper, in Selkirk paper, warn the public when they get the parcel, strange parcel, do not open, phone the RCMP or authority or something,” Shachtay told a Record reporter.

“Because kids could go there and grab it without knowing. We lost one life already we don’t want to lose anymore.”

Vicky Shachtay (left) and her young daughter.

-- First published in the Selkirk Record print edition January 29, 2015 p.12

Gimli catches eye of national newspaper

PHOTO BY AJ BATAC / FLICKR

Gimli was named one of the top places to retire by the Globe and Mail last week.

 

 

By Austin Grabish, The Express Weekly News

 

Gimli has caught the attention of Canada’s national newspaper.

An article published last week in the Globe and Mail highlighted six retirement hot spots across the country and among them was the RM of Gimli.

The Globe chose the hot spots after the paper’s readers boasted about the six locations.

The Globe’s article is part of an ongoing retirement series the paper has been running.

Gimli was the third town listed in last week’s article. The article said Gimli has become “one of the province’s unsung retirement hot spots.”

“Offering an appealing combination of a laid-back lake lifestyle and affordable housing that’s attracting retirees even from beyond the Keystone province’s borders,” the article said.

The Globe story gave just a paragraph to each town, but said longer articles featuring baby boomers that have already made the move to the six locales would follow it.

No word yet on when that story will be published.

Gimli Mayor Randy Woroniuk said the Globe interviewed him a few weeks ago but he didn’t know the town was going to be ranked so highly.

“I was kind of shocked because he didn’t say anything about ranking Gimli and then all of the sudden (I’m) on my Facebook and Gimli ranks number six, I thought what!”

Woroniuk said the national publicity is more than welcomed.

“I think it’s great because now we’re on the national radar, people are going to think… hey you know what Gimli would be a good place to live it’s not in the city (and) it’s not in the country,” Woroniuk said.

Woroniuk thinks Gimli has a lot to offer for baby boomers looking to retire. 

He said the town has all the amenities that a city has.

“You can buy all your hardware here, you can buy all your groceries here, we have specialty stores, we’ve got restaurants,” Woroniuk said.

And the mayor said there is an array of activities for boomers to do in Gimli.

“Recreation wise we not only have the lake but we also have land if you want to go bird watching, hiking, hunting, snowmobiling, we’ve got all that here,” Woroniuk said.

“It’s because of our rural type of lifestyle (that) you can enjoy all that stuff.”

Woroniuk said there are plenty of housing options for retirees looking to move to Gimli.

“Right now there’s a huge private market,” Woroniuk said. 

Woroniuk hopes the national publicity Gimli has received will encourage investors to look at doing business in the town.

“Hopefully private investors will look at that article and say hey this may be the place to invest, let’s build 55+ condos because you know the demand could be there in the future.”

-- First published in the Express Weekly News print edition January 22, 2015 p.14

www.expressweeklynews.ca

Arborg Mountie breaches bail, faces new charges

EXPRESS FILE PHOTO BY AUSTIN GRABISH

By Austin Grabish, The Express Weekly News

A 26-year veteran member of the RCMP who is accused of sexually assaulting a nine-year-old child is now facing a slew of other charges and was re-arrested after being released on a promise to appear late last year.

Court documents obtained by the Express last week show Robert Dowd, 55, is now facing eight counts of weapons related charges in addition to a charge of failing to comply with a no-contact order.

Dowd was charged with breaching his undertaking after he allegedly contacted witnesses through email, Brandon Police said in a news release last week.

Court documents allege Dowd contacted the witnesses on Dec. 26 last year.

Dowd was under a no-contact order after he was charged last September with sexual assault and sexual interference in relation to an alleged incident that took place in the Ashern area.

None of the charges against Dowd have been proven in court and he is presumed innocent.

The news release from Brandon Police made no mention of the eight counts of weapons charges Dowd is also facing, but the Express learned about them last week when it obtained court records relating to Dowd.

The court documents show Dowd was charged on Nov. 13 with failing to comply with an order to not possess a weapon.

He also faces four charges of unauthorized possession of a firearm and three charges of unsafe storage of a restricted firearm.

Court records obtained by the Express earlier this year show Dowd is recently divorced, a father of two, and the owner of a former Arborg lawn cutting business.

Dowd is a longtime member of the RCMP and specializes in forensic crash reconstruction, court records show.  

In 2012 he was hired to serve as an expert witness by an American insurance company.

Dowd is also a published author and has lived in Arborg since 1989.

Brandon Police arrested Dowd in Winnipeg with the assistance of the RCMP. He was remanded in custody at the Winnipeg Remand Centre and appeared in a Winnipeg courtroom on Jan. 15^th.

Dowd was later released and was not in custody as of Monday afternoon, a Manitoba Justice official said.

RCMP spokesman Paul Human said Dowd has been suspended from the police force with pay.

His next court appearance is in Peguis on Feb. 9. 

-- First published in the Express Weekly News print edition January 22, 2015 p.5

www.expressweeklynews.ca 

LSSD gives e-cigs the boot

 ECIGCLICK.CO.UK/FLICKR 

E-cigarettes have exploded in popularity in recent years.

By Austin Grabish, The Selkirk Record 

Anyone who thought they could puff on an e-cigarette on school property in the Lord Selkirk School Division (LSSD) will have to think again. 

LSSD recently followed suit with other school divisions across the province and barred the use of e-cigarettes on all school property.

“We just feel that it’s something that we don’t want to encourage. We don’t want to encourage youth to be smoking in any way shape or form, we don’t think it’s consistent with a healthy lifestyle,” said LSSD superintendent Scott Kwasnitza.

School administrators brought concerns about the electronic smoking devices to Kwasnitza last year.

“We had a couple of incidents late last spring where students were using e-cigarettes and we discussed it with the administrators and we decided to consider it a smoking violation.”

The school division already had an existing no-smoking policy in place and added vaping as a prohibited activity earlier this year.

Kwasnitza said the division isn’t seeing an increase in students who use the e-cigarettes.

But a recent study in Quebec by the Canadian Cancer Society found one in three high school students had tried using an e-cigarette.

A spokeswoman for Manitoba Health said the province currently has no statistics on youth who use the devices. 

In 2009 Health Canada issued a public advisory warning Canadians not to use the products, but ever since then the agency has remained relatively mum about the new trend.  

A spokesman from Health Canada told the Globe and Mail last September the government doesn’t have any plans to do anything about the e-cigarettes.

The World Health Organization said last summer it was too early to say whether any of the compounds in e-cigarettes could cause long-term health problems, like cancer. 

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices, which use a heating element to vapourize flavoured liquid.

Most of the devices are made with metal but some look like normal cigarettes. The products are marketed as being a much healthier way for someone to get a nicotine fix and many users swear by the devices.

But not every e-cigarette contains nicotine and it’s actually illegal for nicotine juice to be sold in Canada despite the fact the products are available in stores across the country and sold online.

Kwasnitza said the division’s no-smoking policy is in line with many other school divisions across the province.

-- First published in the Selkirk Record print edition January 22, 2015 p.13 

 

New study to probe plastic pollution in Lake Winnipeg

 

PHOTO COURTESY HALLI JONASSON / LAKE WINNIPEG FOUNDATION

A new study will investigate plastic pollution in Lake Winnipeg, which already has a number of environmental issues including a chronic algae problem.                                                                                                                                   

By Austin Grabish, The Selkirk Record 

A new research project that will investigate plastic pollution in Lake Winnipeg is moving forward thanks to a grant from the Lake Winnipeg Foundation.

Samples taken from 12 different points on Lake Winnipeg last year will soon be analyzed for microplastic particles that are harmful to freshwater systems.

“The goal of this work (is) to try and just do a survey of the lake to try and understand the extent of any plastic pollution that might be here already, if there’s any at all, so we have a reference point for future work,” said Michael D. Rennie, a University of Manitoba scientist working on the project.

The research project is one of three the Lake Winnipeg Foundation announced it would be funding last week. The project received a $6,000 grant and is expected to research an area that is currently untapped. The hope for the project is to determine how pollution in freshwater environments can alter algal blooms.

“Because no one’s really tried to investigate that yet at all,” Rennie said.

This is in addition to the basic understanding Rennie and other scientists hope to have on the extent of plastic pollution in Lake Winnipeg. “Because we don’t really have a whole lot of information on it right now,” Rennie said.

In recent years microplastics have been rising to more detectable levels in large freshwater systems, which includes all of the great lakes, Rennie said.

Beads from fishing gear, water bottles, and cosmetic products are all polluting lake waters, he said.

Small polyethylene pieces from cosmetic products are of a special concern. “It’s certainly where a lot of the attention has been generated in the past,” Rennie said.

The small plastic particles have already been removed from some products while other cosmetic companies have taken a pledge to stop using them in the near future, Rennie said.

The extent of plastic pollution in Lake Winnipeg isn’t currently known and may not be a huge issue, but the new research project will serve as a foundation for future studies examining plastic pollution, Rennie said.

“And in case it starts to become a problem we can compare back to the survey that we’re conducting currently,” Rennie said.

The University of Manitoba, IISD Experimental Lakes Area Inc, and the Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium are all working on the project.

 “It’s really a group project. There’s a lot of people involved in it,” Rennie said.

Two other water projects also received funding from the Lake Winnipeg Foundation.

The first is the Caring for our Watersheds contest run by Oak Hammock Marsh, which has high school students submit proposals on projects that can help watersheds.

The second is a short video called Making the Case for Wetlands. The video is expected to highlight the benefits of wetlands in relation to issues of water quality, flooding and climate change.

Kirsten Earl McCorrister, Lake Winnipeg Foundation’s interim executive director, said the Foundation is proud to be able to support projects that will better the health of Lake Winnipeg.

“Complex challenges require multifaceted solutions,” Earl McCorrister said.

-- First published in the Selkirk Record print edition January 15, 2015 p.19