Justice minister wants to know where people in Manitoba are getting bear spray to use illegally

Manitoba's justice minister says he's instructed government officials to figure out where bear spray being used illegally in the province is coming from, following a string of recent attacks in Winnipeg.

Kelvin Goertzen's comments come after a series of assaults involving bear spray on Sunday in Winnipeg's downtown and West End. As of Tuesday, police said they still haven't made any arrests.

Goertzen said he wants to see where people are getting bear spray before using it as a weapon and stop them from getting it in the first place.

"If it's coming [from] online and it's coming across provincial or other borders, that's a different sort of discussion," Goertzen said following a news conference Tuesday that also included Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth.

"If it's just something that needs a little bit more of a speed bump to not prevent people from legally obtaining it, but preventing those who are illegally using it, then that's [also] a different discussion."

In a separate incident the previous weekend, two teenage boys were arrested after police alleged they used bear spray on nearly a dozen people across three locations, including a Winnipeg Transit bus.

While bear spray is legal to carry for use against animals in settings like hiking, for example Smyth said officers are seeing more incidents where people are found carrying it within Winnipeg.

"Not a lot of bears in the city, so we know it's being used inappropriately," he told reporters.

"Right now, it's just far too easy to acquire bear spray and use it in a way that it's not intended to be used."

Smyth said no suspects have been identified yet in the attacks over the weekend, but he's confident police will soon be able to do that through the use of downtown Winnipeg's system of surveillance cameras.

University of Manitoba criminologist Frank Cormiersaidexplaining what motivates the perpetrators behindthese random attacks is difficult.

There could be emotional reasons, such as anger, jealousy, or hatred against certain people or groups, he said.

"They could be bored. They could be out because they get a thrill from firing bear spray at somebody and watching the mayhem that ensues," Cormier said Tuesday onUp to Speed.

Random attacks are quite rare, but it's tough to see a pattern because the data tends to be a year behind what's actually happening, Cormier said. These kind of attacks still impact people's sense of safety.

"Those ones are the ones that really tend to stick in people's minds and cause them a fairly high level of concern," he said.

"It really can lead to heightened levels of fear of crime."

Calls for changes

Goertzen said he hopes the issue of easily obtaining bear spray will be among those addressed at an upcoming meeting about bail reform with the federal government in Ottawa next month.

Goertzenalso recently called on the federal government to make it more difficult to get bail for people charged with crimes involving a knife or bear spray modified to conceal its label.

Rick Shone, who owns a store in Winnipeg that sells bear spray, saidbusinesses like his require people who buy the product to show identification and fill out paperwork that asks for their name and home address.

Staff at Wilderness Supplyalso have conversations with potential customers to get a sense of exactly what they're planning to use the product for. And after a bear spray attack at his store during an attempted robbery in December, Shone said they know the stakes firsthand.

"The challenge is that it doesn't matter what I do, you can get bear spray anywhere. And you can order it online and you can have it here in a couple of days, shipped for free to your house," he said.

"There's not a ton of places selling it online, but there's enough that allows that free flow of bear spray into Manitoba, and unfortunately it's being used for purposes it's not intended for."

Angela Klassen, West Broadway co-ordinator for the Bear Clan Patrol, said the recent attacks have had a ripple effect across her community.

"It really hits close to home when it's just down the block from you. We hear about it happening in the city all the time," Klassen said.

"I've noticed a lot more of the community being a little more vigilant and a lot more on guard."

She said her group cancelled its scheduled patrol on Sunday afternoon because of the assaults, and sent volunteers to walk with its North End patrol instead.

Klassen said she also thinks it needs to be made more difficult for people to buy bear spray, including potentially by adding age restrictions.

But in the meantime, the Bear Clan Patrol isn't letting the incidents hold them back they'll be back out on the streets patrolling this week, she said.

WATCH |Justice minister wants to know where people in Manitoba are getting bear spray to use illegally:

Justice minister wants to know where people in Manitoba are getting bear spray to use illegally

2 years ago

Duration 2:52

Manitoba's justice minister says he's instructed government officials to figure out where bear spray being used illegally in the province is coming from, following a string of recent attacks in Winnipeg.