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    • Timmins offers details about new loitering bylaw aimed at vagrancy

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    The City of Timmins has provided more details about a new bylaw that regulates the use of local parklands.

    Among the long list of rules, one of them is no overnight loitering. Thursday, city clerk Steph Palmateer outlined why the new bylaw is in effect and how the city plans to enforce it.

    The goal, Palmateer said, is to help make them more enjoyable for everyone. He said the bylaw is a result of the public asking for it.

    “The main issue appears to be vagrancy,” Palmateer said.

    “And, you know, some of the, I'll say the litter that's left behind, such as needles and things like that from, you know, people who are unfortunately doing that sort of thing in our parks. And it's getting to the point where parents don't feel safe bringing their children into our community parks.”

    Some of the rules include no abusive language, no begging or soliciting and no loitering for more than 20 minutes between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.

    Palmateer said people who set up tents to spend the night would be asked to leave.

    “In accordance with our existing protocol, yes, we would go pay them a visit,” he said.

    “We would, you know, talk to them and typically we've been adding them to the by-names list for, you know, the services that are available in Timmins. And we haven't had any issues up to this point. The voluntary compliance has been exceptional.”

    However, Jeff Schlemmer, executive director of Community Legal Clinic of York Region, told CTV News there could be a legal issue that arises from the bylaw.

    “If they decide to go ahead, knowing as they do that the law is illegal, then we will do what we can to get it in front of a judge so a judge can tell them what judges have told other Ontario municipalities recently, which is everybody in Canada has a right to shelter in a public space,” Schlemmer said.

    Palmateer said the city’s bylaw enforcement department will respond to complaints within 24 hours and police will respond to emergencies and any overnight occurrences. 

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    A man who has brain damage has a murder conviction reversed after a 34-year fight

    A man who has brain damage and was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a shopkeeper in London had his decades-old conviction quashed Wednesday by an appeals court troubled by the possibility police elicited a false confession from a mentally vulnerable man. Oliver Campbell, who suffered cognitive impairment as a baby and struggles with his concentration and memory, was 21 when he was jailed in 1991 after being convicted based partly on admissions his lawyer said were coerced. “The fight for justice is finally over after nearly 34 years," Campbell said. “I can start my life an innocent man.” Campbell, now in his 50s, was convicted of the robbery and murder of Baldev Hoondle, who was shot in the head in his shop in the Hackney area of east London in July 1990. He had a previous appeal rejected in 1994 and was released from prison in 2002 on conditions that could have returned him to prison if he got into trouble. Defense lawyer Michael Birnbaum said police lied to Campbell and “badgered and bullied” him into giving a false confession by admitting he pulled the trigger in an accident. He was interviewed more than a dozen times, including sessions without either a lawyer or other adult present. His learning disability put him “out of his depth” and he was "simply unable to do justice to himself,” Birnbaum said. He said the admissions were nonsense riddled with inconsistencies that contradicted facts in the case. At trial, he testified that he was not involved in the robbery and had been somewhere else though he couldn't remember where. A co-defendant, Eric Samuels, who has since died, pleaded guilty to the robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison. At the time, he told his lawyer Campbell was not the gunman and later told others Campbell wasn’t with him during the robbery. Lawyers continued to advocate for Campbell that he wasn't the killer and his case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission which investigates potential injustices. The three judges on the Court of Appeal rejected most of Birnbaum's grounds for appeal but said they were troubled by the conviction in light of a new understanding of the reliability of admissions from someone with a mental disability. The panel quashed the conviction as 'unsafe,' and refused to order a retrial.

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