#72: I LOVE YOU ❤️

⚖️ COURT - Hearing begins for Kitchener Justice of the Peace who repeatedly told a colleague he wanted to have sex with her

🛒 ECONOMY - FB Marketplace seller maced, beaten, and robbed in Whitby

🍔 FAST FOOD - Drunk driver stopped by Guelph police in McDonald’s drive-through

Good morning.

I recently had a chat with a subscriber who said he had a hard time reading some of the stories we cover (particularly the ones concerning sexual assault).

He said it’s hard to laugh at stuff “from a distance” when you know people who’ve been victimized in a similar way.

I must admit: I’ve had pangs of conscience over this since Issue #2 or #3.

Our mandate from the beginning has been to cover “Canada’s Weirdest News,” and I think we’ve done that successfully.

But now I’m wondering if a weekly digest like this is actually good for anybody. 

Is it good for the soul to read the things we cover every Friday morning? Elevatio mentis ad Deum: do they lift the mind to God? Or would the public be better served by a different coverage approach? One that is less sensational and more in-depth, thoughtful, and original? 

After much thought and prayerful consideration, I’ve decided on the latter.

So, please be advised: I'll be taking a short hiatus to “restoreth my soul.”

I aim to return in several weeks with renewed vigour and a new product that, I believe, will better serve la fédération.

With all of that being said, we’re going out with a bang this week (we had a bumper crop of wild news this week).

Enjoy.

-Peter

PS: if you’re reading this, you’re a real one 💯 thank you for all your donations and for sticking with us through thick & thin. I promise you will enjoy the new Smalltown Graffiti more than the current version.

⌛️ Today’s read is 1.5 minutes long.

A hearing is underway to determine whether a Kitchener Justice of the Peace will face professional discipline after repeatedly telling a colleague he wanted to have sex with her.

Although James Ziegler has already been found not guilty of the criminal charges, a panel is now trying to determine if Ziegler’s conduct amounted to sexual harassment and whether he should face a professional penalty for his actions.

The complainant, a female Justice of the Peace, said in court last week that Ziegler approached her on the morning of April 19, 2024 on the seventh floor of the Waterloo Region Courthouse

“He appeared disheveled, he just looked unwell,” she told the panel, according to CTV News Kitchener.

He leaned over her desk and said, “‘I love you, and I want to have sex with you. I love the way you look. I love the way you laugh. I love the way you smile. I love everything about you and I want to have sex with you’.”

The complainant said she was stunned and began to back away from him.

“I just said ‘I just see you as a colleague. I am not interested in having sex with you. I am not interested in having an affair. I am not interested in you,’ and he just kept on.”

She said Ziegler began to ramble and describe, in detail, a previous affair he’d had and how he was frustrated with his wife for helping a sick family member.

“Then he talked about how he had uncontrolled anger issues and how he couldn’t control his anger and how he was horny and how he wanted to have sex with me,” the complainant said.

She responded by telling him she wasn’t interested and that both of them were needed in their respective courts. But she said that only made him angrier.

“His voice would get louder, he would pace faster and I was terrified,” she told the panel.

The incident lasted about half an hour until Ziegler suddenly walked out.

“I just sat there and I started to shake.”

She ran into Ziegler again outside the cafeteria that day. Later, he entered her office again to give her a book about an unhappy woman who attempts suicide. He suggested she read it.

Later that same day, Ziegler came to her office again but couldn’t enter because she’d locked the door.

She said she could tell it was him based on the clothes she could see from the window.

“I can’t express how terrified I was and I just said ‘go away’ and he kept banging on the door and shaking the door handle. And I just remember being so terrified and thinking ‘if he gets in here, I am so done for, I don’t know what to do’,” she told the panel.

The complainant continued to say Ziegler left, but she was so afraid that she had to find security to walk her to her car. She also said she couldn’t go home for hours because she was worried Ziegler would show up there.

When she eventually did go home, she couldn’t sleep all night. The woman described getting a text message and phone call from Ziegler two days later when he learned he was getting a call from the Associate Chief Justice about what happened.

Ziegler’s defence hasn’t yet cross-examined the witness. The hearing will continue at a later date that has yet to be determined. Ziegler remains unassigned from judicial duties, pending the hearing outcome. If the complaint is upheld, he could face a range of penalties, from a warning to a recommendation to the Attorney General he be removed from his office.

Source: CTV News Kitchener

Police are looking for at least three suspects after an armed robbery in Whitby, ON.

Around 3 PM Tuesday, a man arranged to meet another man near Taunton Road East and Baldwin Street South to sell him a watch he’d listed on Facebook Marketplace.

Upon meeting, the man was pepper sprayed and beaten. The suspects then fled in a black SUV.

The man was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.

Police released descriptions of two of the suspects. They say one is a Black man between 18 and 20 years old, six feet tall with long braided hair. He was last seen wearing a black toque, a blue medical mask, a black tracksuit, yellow work gloves, and grey running shoes.

The second suspect is only described as being five-foot-five to five-foot-seven and was last seen wearing a black medical mask, a beige sweatshirt, dark grey track pants, black shoes, and black nitrile gloves.

They did not release a description of the third suspect.

An Elmira man was arrested last weekend after allegedly fleeing a collision then driving his smashed car the wrong way through a McDonalds drive-through in Guelph.

At a quarter to midnight on Sunday, police were called to the McDonald’s at Watson Parkway North and Eastview Road. Staff said a man in a heavily-damaged car had entered the drive-through via the exit.

Police arrived a short time later, blocked the car in, and arrested the man.

They later found out that he had rear-ended an SUV at the intersection of Victoria Road North and Eramosa Road and fled.

Police said the man had a “strong odour of alcohol on his breath and was unsteady on his feet.” They took him to the station for tests and found he had more than the legal amount of alcohol in his system.

As a result, a 49-year-old Elmira man is charged with impaired driving, dangerous driving and failing to stop after an accident. Police think he may have been involved in a second collision the same night and are asking anyone with information to come forward.