Yahoo News is reporting that "A drug dealer who conspired to traffic fentanyl and crystal meth while serving a prison sentence for drug trafficking is facing a lengthy period of incarceration. Mark Vetesnik, 45, stood trial and was recently convicted, and he returned to Moncton provincial court by video conference from prison on Thursday for a sentencing hearing."
"Prosecutor Christian Girouard asked for 15 years in prison, saying Vetesnik is beyond rehabilitation. He said the offender has four prior drug offences on his record, was dealing in huge quantities of deadly substances and conspired with others while incarcerated at Springhill Institution in Nova Scotia."
"The prosecutor pointed out Vetesnik’s crimes involved two kilograms of fentanyl and eight kilograms of crystal meth." He was also convicted of mailing counterfeit $50 and $100 bills in Manitoba.
Top COVID doctor convicted of child sex crime banned from practicing medicine
ReplyDeleteA disgraced B.C. public health official who oversaw COVID-19 pandemic measures has agreed to never practice medicine again following a conviction for child sex offences.
by Alex Zoltan,
A disgraced B.C. public health official who oversaw COVID-19 pandemic measures has agreed to never practice medicine again following a conviction for child sex offences.
Albert Stefanus de Villiers, the former chief medical officer of B.C.’s Interior Health organization, has surrendered his licence with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia and has agreed to not reapply to practice medicine, according to a decision released by the college on Wednesday.
The agreement comes two years after de Villiers was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for sexual interference of a child.
In 2023, an Alberta judge found that de Villiers sexually abused a boy on five to eight occasions over two years, starting when the boy was seven years old.
The incidents occurred between 2018 and 2020 when de Villiers was the lead medical health officer for Alberta’s Northern Zone. The incidents were reported to police shortly before his move to Kelowna to take on a similar role with the B.C. government’s Interior Health division.
While he was still working as a lead medical officer, the now disgraced doctor took a particularly hardline approach to public health, especially when it came to mandates aimed at curbing the virus. In 2020, for instance, de Villiers compared mandatory masking to the need to “wear a seat belt,” saying “it's not an option.”
“There are lots of other things that society expects me to do; I need to wear a seat belt, it’s not an option,” de Villiers said. “I need to wear pants when I’m in public, it’s not an option. It’s true, it’s my body, but I’ve still got some responsibility to decide and to make sure we can keep everybody safe and healthy.”
De Villiers said he met with Dr. Bonnie Henry three times a week during the perceived height of the pandemic, with de Villiers in charge of “managing COVID-19 vaccine delivery.”
While the allegations he's been convicted of occurred while he was employed by Alberta Health Services, de Villiers continued to collect a salary of $346,000 from Interior Health for the fiscal year 2022-2023, a full year after he had been charged.
He was fired in 2023, only after he was fully convicted of the sexual interference charges, and nearly two full years after the charges were initially laid.
"De Villiers said he met with Dr. Bonnie Henry three times a week during the perceived height of the pandemic, with de Villiers in charge of managing COVID-19 vaccine delivery.” Hmmm... Fire Bonnie.
DeleteIf we ever get around to meaningful reform in sentencing for criminal offenses at all in Canada, I'm going to suggest that we should gauge the punishment for underage sexual activity more severely the younger the victim. A 7 year old boy, there needs to be some very serious penalties for that. That offenders adjustments are not going to change after a 5.5 year joke of a prison sentence. This guy is just going to get out after 3-4 years in protective custody and move to another province and become a doctor again, he's only prohibited in B.C. right?
ReplyDeleteYes, sexually assaulting young children is really mental.
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