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Russell Williams charged in 2 x murders, confinement, sexual assault.

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What I'm saying if the accused was a doctor et al, the hype would be right up there, that I agree with.

What I am saying is that the CBC et al would not be attempting to paint the entire medical community or whatever community with the same brush.

BTW, did anyone see the CBC interview of the CDS on the National last night? I thought it was an attempted crucifixion of the CDS.
Or am I being overly critical?
 
Shocking and interesting.

I will be keeping an eye open down here if this story (it might have already) goes international.

OWDU
 
Fair dealings and all.

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Review+into+cadet+death+urged/2550058/story.html

Review into cadet's death urged


By Chris Thompson, The Windsor StarFebruary 11, 2010
 
When Ron Grozelle was reading stories about the shocking murder charges against a high-ranking military base commander in Trenton earlier this week, a certain fact in the stories jumped out at him.

Col. Russell Williams, a decorated pilot and commander at Canadian Forces Base Trenton now facing murder and sexual assault charges, was at the Royal Military College in Kingston at the same time Grozelle's son Joe went missing and was later found dead.

Joe Grozelle was a 21-year-old RMC cadet who was last seen alive on Oct. 22, 2003. His body was found in the Cataraqui River three weeks later.

Williams, 46, was at RMC from August 2003 until June 2004 working on a masters degree in defence studies.

"There is some evidence that he was at RMC during the time that Joe went missing," said Grozelle Wednesday from his home in Chatham-Kent.

"All I'm looking for is the authorities to take a review of that time period and see where he was and what activities were involved, was he on campus, was he in classrooms with some of the students, in the dorms, just to see if there's any type of potential connection there."

Williams has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Belleville resident Jessica Lloyd, 27, and Marie-France Comeau, 38, a corporal from the base Williams commanded.

He has also been charged with sexual assault and forcible confinement in connection with two other cases where the female victims were bound naked to their chairs and photographed by the suspect.

The OPP and other police agencies are investigating unsolved cases in other places where Williams lived during his 23-year military career.

Joe Grozelle's death was the subject of an inquest in 2007 that revealed no new information and failed to determine a cause of death.

Ron Grozelle concedes the nature of the crimes Williams is accused of don't conform to Joe's death, but he believes a probe is still warranted.

"I mean the crimes that he (Williams) is alleged to have committed doesn't seem to fit bringing Joe's case into the picture here because there were women and sexual things," Grozelle said.

"Not to say though that, for example, if Joe happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw something, you know, who knows?"

Grozelle said he is willing to be patient as police conduct their investigations into the most recent crimes, but hopes to hear from police soon.

"I know there is the immediate issue and the charges that he's been charged with at this point but there needs to be a review of what happened while he was at RMC as well."

© Copyright (c) The Windsor Star
 
the 48th regulator said:
In 1983, Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice were sexually assaulted and killed within four months of each another in downtown Toronto. DNA evidence revealed that both women had been killed by the same man.

If - repeat if - these 1983 cases are linked to the 2009/2010 cases, there will be nothing like it - for distance in time - in Canadian history, as far as I can see. Even linking murders committed more than a few years apart seems quite rare:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_by_country#Canada
 
Big Silverback said:
BTW, did anyone see the CBC interview of the CDS on the National last night? I thought it was an attempted crucifixion of the CDS.
Or am I being overly critical?

Almost as bad as that twit Jane Tabor/Tonda McCharles? on PowerPlay...she was bound and determined to nail the CDS as being phoney.....strangely everyone poo-poo'd her bullshit
 
Big Silverback said:
What I'm saying if the accused was a doctor et al, the hype would be right up there, that I agree with.

What I am saying is that the CBC et al would not be attempting to paint the entire medical community or whatever community with the same brush.

BTW, did anyone see the CBC interview of the CDS on the National last night? I thought it was an attempted crucifixion of the CDS.
Or am I being overly critical?
Yep, I was yelling at the TV again. Wife comes down says WTF are you doing and then sees that the National is on, shakes her head and goes back upstairs.
 
FSTO said:
Yep, I was yelling at the TV again. Wife comes down says WTF are you doing and then sees that the National is on, shakes her head and goes back upstairs.

Ya I'll second that. I thought the CDS did a good job of keeping his cool and giving smart answers to attack/aggressive questions. Every time I see a media type start this style of interview they take a big drop in my respect.
I watched the CBC supper hour news with a report on the OPP starting a search of Col. Williams  home in Ottawa. Poor old journalist had to really stretch it out to fill his air time.
It looks to me like this story for the present is running out of news to keep it alive.
 
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/02/11/12846096-qmi.html

Russ Williams on suicide watch: Report
By ROB TRIPP, QMI Agency

Last Updated: 11th February 2010, 9:10pm
(LUKE HENDRY/QMI Agecny) KINGSTON, Ont. -

A senior air force commander charged with murdering two women was placed on a suicide watch when he arrived at a provincial jail in Napanee because of his bizarre behaviour, QMI Agency has learned.
Col. Russell Williams was acting as though he was a prisoner of war when he was first processed at the Quinte Detention Centre. He would only give authorities his name, rank and serial number.

Williams was assessed by a psychiatrist and he was deemed a possible suicide risk. His demeanor has been described as “cocky” but “vacant.”
He was given a tear and burn-proof outfit, known among jail workers as an “oven mitt” or “baby doll” to wear.
It is a thick gown, made from an impervious material, with holes for arms and head. The wearer is stripped of personal clothing, including underwear and other personal effects.

Williams was placed in a segregation cell where he could be monitored continually by security staff and where he had no privacy. The suicide watch segregation cell does not have a screen or covering over the barred front so that staff can see inside at all times.
Williams’ mattress was removed in the daytime and returned only at night.

On Wednesday, Williams was allowed to exchange his suicide gown for a regular, orange jumpsuit that is issued to most prisoners at Quinte, a crowded provincial holding and remand centre. Most of the inmates at the facility are awaiting trial.
Built to hold nearly 100 inmates, Quinte is often jammed with 300 or more prisoners. In some cases, inmates sleep on mattresses in hallways or placed on the floor of cells.
Williams remains in a segregation cell by himself with no contact with other inmates.

He has spoken very little and often refuses to make eye contact with jail staff.
His next court appearance will be by video link from the detention centre. Inmates are taken to a room in the centre where they stand in front of a camera, monitor and telephone that is part of a network connected to provincial courthouses.

The system allows routine remands to be conducted without the expense and time of shuttling prisoners from jails to court buildings.
Defence lawyers are still able to talk to the accused on a secure phone line.

rtripp@thewhig.com
 
Ya, I'll third that:

I shouldn't have watched--it made me so angry.  >:(

The accusatory tone that woman took with the General made her look like a shrew and the General like an angel.

She might as well have just gone right over and slapped him in the face.

How much worse could she have tried to make him feel by asking him if he felt responsible for the deaths?

How much worse could she try to make him feel by asking him repeatedly if there is something he should have noticed about RW to prevent the murders?

As if the CDS is possessed of a God-like omnipotence; a modern day soothsayer.

That reporter deliberately attempted to emotionally manipulate the General into a position to make him feel bad.

And, where is the reporter's objectivity in this? Is it the reporters job to make the news or record the news?

Well, she just made the news because her aggressiveness ruined a perfect opportunity for a decent interview.

Her combative style upstaged the news and denied the audience.

Why is the media jumping to the question of 'how the military let this happen" before the police have released information about exactly "what happened?"

A case against the colonel is yet to be proved-he still has rights.

We don't yet even know that the colonel is a serial killer but if it turns out to be so then the media needs to realize serial killers are usually highly

intelligent and hide behind a mask of sanity--even to the point that they fool their own life partners, their mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers.

Sarcasm: Should American law enforcement have predicted Ted Bundy?  After all that's a behavioral science investigative teams' job too. 

I hope someone holds a press conference for aggressive media types & delivers the news flash that predicting human behaviour is not an exact science.

General Natynczyk was a gentleman and displayed grace under pressure throughout the interview. God bless him.

(I'm outta here before I blow a gasket!!!)
 
Where is this video of the interview with the abrasive reporter? I clicked benny's and milnews's links but I don't think those are the one you're all speaking of? Didn't you all say it was a female journalist that was being very abrasive with him?
 
To answer your question, ballz, it was Susan Ormiston. She was very aggressive with the questions, almost "in your face". She was to the point of being obnoxious and rude.
 
I did some digging on the CBC.ca site (blargh.) Here is the link to the National Video on the interview between the reporter in question and the CDS.

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV_Shows/The_National/Canada/ID=1410315526

 
All righty then --- I just watched Mr Mansbridge on The National - live from Vancouver - announcing "breaking news" ... "that the CBC has uncovered that the Col has written a confession and that he led the police to Ms. Lloyd's remains."

Uhmmm, CBC - don't you read Ms. Blatchford in the Globe & Mail - she's got a 24 hour head start on you.

Given the CBC reading this thread as guests, and given that Ms. Blatchford's article is here in this thread ... so was obviously seen ...

Just one more reason to flick to another channel.

Scroll over to the 7:15 minute mark.

http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/watch/

::)
 
JesseWZ said:
I did some digging on the CBC.ca site (blargh.) Here is the link to the National Video on the interview between the reporter in question and the CDS.

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV_Shows/The_National/Canada/ID=1410315526

Thanks a lot... I will refrain from posting my thoughts on such a public forum as I might just get out of line. :-X

Ohhh what I could say over a cold brew though...
 
The media is falling over themselves, and even quoting each other's speculation as facts.
Better to wait for real facts from the investigation team now.  Some of the articles I took a
look at today were below poor quality.

Other articles are so speculative, they sound like an early episode of "The Simpsons".

Sax: What seems to be the problem officers?
Officer Eddie: That's enough out of you smart guy.
Officer Lou: [pointing his gun] Reach for your license...[cock's gun] slowly.
Officer Eddie: Well well, Steve Sax, from New York City.
Officer Lou: I heard some guy got killed in New York City and they never solved the case, but you wouldn't know anything about that, would you Steve? [the officers laugh]
Sax: But there's hundreds of unsolved murders in New York City.
Officer Lou: You don't know when to keep your mouth shut, do you Saxy boy?




 
This is just friggin' unbelievable.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2010/02/11/12845766-qmi.html
Col. Williams, Bernardo were 'pals'

By JOE WARMINGTON and DON PEAT, QMI Agency
   

They were pals.
Accused killer Col. Russell Williams and notorious serial killer Paul Bernardo both attended the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.
They both studied economics at the Military Trail campus during the mid-1980s.

They graduated together in 1987, Williams, 46, with a politics and economics degree, Bernardo, 45, with a commerce and economics degree.
Their families both lived along the Scarborough bluffs.
Now police sources tell the Toronto Sun the two were college “pals” who “partied” together and that their relationship is the subject of intense scrutiny by the joint forces team probing the murders of Cpl. Marie-France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd. 

While speculative, police are even looking into the possibility Bernardo and Williams may have “competed against each other.” The source would not elaborate on what that meant.
“If they were friends it’s certainly interesting,” the source said. “We don’t know what this relationship means.

“But we do know that they had spent time together at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.”
When contacted about the revelation of Bernardo and Williams attending U of T Scarborough at the same time, Commissioner Julian Fantino vowed that when “new aspects come to light, the OPP will investigate.”

“We are committed to ensure that every aspect of this is investigated and looked in to,” Fantino told the Sun Thursday night. “I am very confident thanks to the great co-operation of the OPP, Belleville Police, and military investigators.”
The commissioner said cops want as much information as possible about Williams’ early years.

“We welcome any information members of the public may have on this and encourage them to contact us,” he said.
In an exclusive interview, Bernardo’s father, Ken Bernardo, said his son doesn’t recall Williams.

However, the father wasn’t able to reach his son to ask whether he knew Williams by the last name he used in high school and university, or his stepfather’s last name, Sovko.
“Paul said he might have run into him there but he didn’t know him,” Bernardo said, adding he will ask specifically if his son knew a Russ Sovka when he speaks to him again.

Bernardo said they didn’t discuss the unsolved crimes in the Scarborough area around his son’s crimes or whether Williams may now be suspect in them.
“We don’t talk about the past,” Bernardo said.

Williams, 46, was charged Monday with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of forcible confinement and two counts of break and enter and sexual assault. He’ll be back in court Feb. 18.
When Williams attended U of T Scarborough, about 5,000 students attended the commuter campus. There would have been about 250 students attending classes in each year of the economics and commerce program, a school official estimated.

Women were terrified throughout the Scarborough area surrounding the campus in the 1980s following a series of violent sex attacks that culminated with Toronto Police launching a task force to find the Scarborough rapist.
Bernardo, after he was jailed for the murder of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, admitted to several of the attacks.

Following Williams’ arrest on Monday, police have vowed to investigate cold cases that intersect with the former CFB Trenton base commander’s life.
At this point there is no suggestion of any criminal connection between Bernardo and Williams or any link between Williams and any other attack.

On Thursday, police searched Williams’ home in Ottawa, the same day several media outlets reported that he led investigators to the body of Jessica Lloyd following his arrest.
According to a search warrant of another suspect’s home before Williams was named the primary suspect and charged, detectives were looking for lingerie, baby blankets and computer data storage devices.

— With files from Mike Strobel and Chris Doucette

 
Vern, I also watched CBC news this morning and Mr. Mansbridge said something about "confirming" the events leading up to the discovery of Jessica Lloyd's body and when they went to the "senior" correspondent in Ottawa, all he mentioned was that forensic teams were at Williams' house in Ottawa and cottage in Tweed and how people who knew him, couldn't reconcile his public image with these murders.

CBC, stop with the red herrings and actually report the news!  >:(

As far as the interview with the CDS, I watched it last night.  The reporter should be fired.  Had she done a little research, she might not have looked like an absolute fool on national TV.
 
Thanks, Lew  :salute:  This, from the Globe & Mail, shared in accordance with the "fair dealing" provisions, Section 29, of the Copyright Act.
Rarely has Canadian news coverage of a high-profile criminal case offered so much misleading speculation and so many erroneous conclusions as in the charges against Colonel Russell Williams. The following assertions are offered as evidence.

‘RED FLAGS' WERE MISSED

A national TV news network's commentary asserting this mentioned everything but the “red flag.” Presumably because there wasn't one. The competition for senior command positions in the Canadian Forces is fierce. The process is thorough, expensive and time consuming, and has produced well over 16,000 leaders at the colonel and general rank over the past century. Not one of them was ever charged with crimes even close to the seriousness of those attributed to Col. Williams.

COLONEL WAS ‘ON TRACK' TO LEAD THE AIR FORCE

Oh? Col. Williams's promotion to the rank of colonel in 2009 at 46 did not put him in the same league as officers who will reach the rank of lieutenant-general and command Canada's air force. If he was 39 or 40, the odds would be more in his favour. To use a military metaphor, he was on a fast train – but not the express.

Perhaps a word on how the military selects personnel for promotion is in order. Once a year, promotion boards are convened in Ottawa, where all personnel performance files are held. Boards are convened for each military classification – pilot, navigator, infantry, artillery, sub-surface (submariner), maritime engineer, etc.

For officers, the board's members are from the classification two ranks senior to the rank being considered for promotion. The board is chaired by an officer three ranks senior to the rank considered. As an example, if pilot captains are being considered for promotion to major, the board will consist of up to six lieutenant-colonel pilots, with a full colonel as chair.

Also of great importance is the participation of one or two “honest brokers” – say, lieutenant-colonels from an unrelated classification, such as the infantry – to ensure the process is not incestuous. An entire week is devoted to selecting those to be promoted in the coming year.

‘MORALE' IS LOW

Journalists who write or say this don't know the difference between morale and attitude. When morale is low, airmen and airwomen are sullen and withdrawn. They avoid work and responsibility and won't put extra effort into their daily duties. I have never seen that attitude exist in more than 50 years of observing Canada's sailors, soldiers and aircrew. Attitude, however, is something else. You can have high morale and be pissed off at the same time. I dare say a large number of our people are angry at Col. Williams for, by his own accounts, shaming the uniform. But morale is not low – the men and women at CFB Trenton are still working their butts off to keep up with the 24/7 demands of supporting our troops in Afghanistan, Haiti, Vancouver, Nevada and a dozen other locations around the world, in addition to searching and rescuing civilians in trouble.

PART OF THE ‘ELITE'

What drivel. What constitutes this “elite”? Is there some secret society I was not invited to while serving? Was there some secret handshake I was not aware of? The leaders of the Canadian Forces meet every morning at National Defence Headquarters. Col. Williams was not invited.

A GENERAL'S ‘RESPONSIBILITY'

During an interview with Canada's top soldier, General Walter Natynczyk, a national television reporter asked whether, given that he had placed Col. Williams in charge in Trenton, he had any words for the families of the victims. Midway through his compassionate response, the reporter asked, “Do you feel responsible?”

The question's innuendo was barely camouflaged – do you feel responsible for the murders and the assaults? That question was the second “body blow” taken by Gen. Natynczyk in the past few days and was contemptible. To his credit, the Chief of the Defence Staff pointed out that he is responsible for more than 90,000 military personnel, regular and reserve. He avoided directly answering the question, which he should never have been asked.

Considering their current high profile and well-earned respect both at home and abroad, our young men and women in uniform deserve better treatment than some in the news media have been dishing out.
 
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