Recent white powder scares in Saskatoon could be connected to string of November incidents, say police

Saskatoon police have confirmed they are investigating a possible connection between five recent white powder scares and a November incident that targeted five businesses in one day.

Five suspicious packages containing white powder were delivered to Saskatoon businesses within a two-hour period on Nov. 29, 2016, prompting a major emergency response involving between 40 and 50 fire department workers.

Locations where 5 packages dropped off

8 years ago

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Five suspicious packages were sent to downtown and north end businesses on Tuesday.

Alexa Emerson was chargedwith mischief and uttering threats in connection with the hoax, which cost emergency services about $66,000.

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She pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial in May. She was release onbail in Alberta.

Police said at the time that two people who delivered the packages to the businesses were released after it was discovered they didn't know the contents.

5 incidents in March

In the past month, two office towers, a school, the Saskatoon Cancer Centre and one business have received suspicious packages, each prompting a full emergency response. The latest three incidents occurred in the past two days.

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On Tuesday afternoon, police confirmed they were investigating a link between the recent five incidents and those that occurred on Nov. 29.

A police spokesperson, however,did not draw a specificconnection between Emerson's case and thefive white powder scares this month.

Fire spokesmanWayne Rodger said the calls are taxing crews, and proving expensive. He said it costs about $20,000 to scramble fire crews and the hazmat team to a call. This cost does not include police and paramedics.

Motivations difficult to pinpoint, says prof.

University of Saskatchewan assistantprofessor of political studiesColleen Bell, who studies security and police,said there wasno clear motivation for the recent spate of white powder scares in Saskatoon.

She said a copycat effect could be at play if somebody was motivated by the attention received by theNovember incident, but added there is no evidence of that.

"The only thing that I can speculate about is whether and this could be serious somebody is engaged in a process of trying to test emergency response in the city, which some would suggest could mean that there could be something else coming."

She said it was also possible the hoaxes were simply a nuisance that posed no real threat to the public.

She added that people who orchestratehoax or terrorism-type incidents are often seeking media attention.

Role of the media

Bell said it is important that coverage of such incidents is "measured" and representative of the true risk to the public.

"In any kind of act that's designed to get people worked up and excited, the media plays a critical role in amplifying that," she said.

"At the same time, the media has an obligation to tell the public about things that are in the public interest to know. And, so, I would say that the media is continually caught in this difficult position where it's sort of damned if it does and damned if it doesn't."

Even without media coverage, she said people are alerted to incidents through social media and alert apps.

She said there is no obvious way to discourage the people behind the hoaxes.