Bear spray as a weapon: Extra-hot capsaicin aerosol used in assaults across Canada

Welcome toTheNational Today newsletter, which takes a closer look at what's happening around some of the day's most notable stories. Sign up hereand it will be delivered directly to your inbox Monday to Friday.

TODAY:

• It seems there's a newweapon of choice for Canadian criminals bear spray
• Mexican journalistEmilio Gutirrez-Sotocaught in limbo in U.S. immigration detention
• How we can take care of people who need help to break addictions to powerful painkillers
• Missed The National last night? Watch it here

Bear spray spree

There's a newweapon of choice for some Canadian criminals bear spray.

Police in Thunder Bay, Ont., issued a plea Wednesday for the public's helpin solving an unprovoked attack with the extra-hotcapsaicinaerosol. A 21-year-old man was driving slowly down one of the city's main drags at 2:30 a.m. with his car windowsopen when a stranger approached him and sprayed him in the face.

The victim managed to drive away and then stopped to call 911. Paramedics treated him on the scene and then transported him to hospital.

There have been close to a dozen other such incidents across the country in recent weeks:

• Aseries of spray attacks on drivers and pedestrians inCochrane, Alta., on June 11,as well as couple of related vehicle break-ins, and the theft of pick-up truckwhich was rammed into aRCMPcruiser, leaving two officers with minor injuries. A young woman and two young men face charges.
• A day-long spree of bear sprayingin Brandon, Man., on June 9, involving four attacks and multiple victimsat a school, shopping mall, and two separate incidents at a provincial exhibition. Police arrested three young men and were searching for at least one more suspect.
• Thepepper spraying of eight random pedestrians and dinersatYongeandBloorin Torontoone of the country's busiest street corners on June 8. Four people were taken to hospital.
• Theattempted spraying of two Winnipeg police on June 5, while they responded to a domestic disturbance call. When the officers knocked on the door, a man opened it a crack and sent out a blast of the pepper aerosol.
• Aviolent home invasion in Dartmouth, N.S., on June 4, when two masked men armed with knives sprayed a man and a woman in the face beforeransacking their apartment for cash and medication. Police later arrested two men who reportedly stank heavily of bear spray outside a neighbouring building.
• An incident at aMoncton, N.B., community fair on June 1, when aman who was involved in an argument with a number of other peopleopened up a can of whoop-gas. An 18-year-old faces charges.
• A June 1, attack inGuelph, Ont.,where three men assaulted another man with a metal pipe andblasts of bear spray.
• Anattempted robbery at an Abbotsford, B.C., business on May 31,when a woman approached a cashier and demanded money, then hit her with a shot of bear spray when she refused to comply.
• Anotherattack in Winnipeg in May,when a couple was hit with bear spray after refusing a man's request for a cigarette. Police allege that the same man later tried to sell drugs to a woman who gave him a smoke, then pulled a knife and tried to spray her when she declined.
• An April 25 incident inBurlington, Ont., when two meninvaded the home of an elderly couple brandishing a handgun and a can of bear spray. The homeowners, aged 74 and 64, were sprayed, forced to give up their bank cards and PIN numbers, then locked in a bathroom while the thieves ransacked the house.

The list ofbear spray incidents doesn't end there. There was anassault inAntigonish, N.S., in April, and a case in St.Catharines, Ont. where a man emptied a can inside an elevator at a Ministry of Transportation office.

The noxious substance was used ina home invasion in Laval, north of Montreal, in March.

And in Vancouver, in early January, a manpepper-sprayed a group of Syrian refugees,at a Muslim Community Centre event that was designed to welcome them to Canada.

In November and December, police in and around Calgary contended with aseries of attacks and robberies, including a spraying inside a washroom at a junior high school.

InPrince Albert, Sask., the chili-pepper-derived aerosol has long been afavoured weapon of street gangs, with 117 incidents in 2015 leading to just two charges and 83 such attacks in 2016.

Bear spray like the animals themselves isubiquitous in many parts of Canada,available for as little as $39 a canfrom outdoor stores.

And it isperfectly legal provided that you use it against animals.

Devices that deploy a liquid, spray, powder, gas, or any other substance "for the purpose of injuring, immobilizing or otherwiseincapacitating any person" are classified as prohibited weaponsunder the Criminal Code.

Federal government statistics don't provide a specific breakdown for offences related to bear or pepper spray, but in 2016 police departments across Canada reported 12,487 "possession of weapons" incidents and charged 7,512 individuals.

Adrienne Arsenault on assignment

Adrienne Arsenault travelled to Texas to investigate the story of Mexican journalist Emilio Gutirrez-Soto, who is being held along with his son in immigration detention in El Paso after seeking U.S. asylum.

If the light catches it at a certain angle, the little statue in immigration lawyer Carlos Spector's El Paso office is a blinder of a beacon.

It's of Mexican political hero Benito Juarez. He was a man of poor, rural roots who became a lawyer and Mexico's first Indigenous president. He's a hero to many and forever a symbol of Mexican nationalism.

And his head is now outrageously shiny.

That's because people have been hopefully, and with no small amount of futility, rubbing the statue's head for good luck for decades.

Spector has a ritual with this statue. He runs his thumb across the forehead when he heads out of the office, "Because I'm getting ready to go into battle and face denial and rejection and abuse by the courts and immigration offices. And it takes a toll on your soul to lose every day."

For 30 years, Spector has been fighting for the rights of those seeking asylum in the U.S. He reasons he can only last another few years. Looking back is exhausting and depressing.

"Politically, the process is retarded," he said in his dizzyingly hot office, the fan above his head offering more noise than relief. "We're back to where immigration law and protection was in the '20s and '30s."

Spector recounts a story that happened in May, where people who were speaking Spanish in a store near the Canadian border were picked up by border patrol officers who overheard them. He doesn't have many other details at hand, because, he says, this isn't the first or the worst of what is happening. It's just the soundtrack of his days.

We were meeting to talk about the fate of Emilio Gutirrez-Soto. He is in immigration detention in El Paso, Texas, with his 25-year-old son Oscar. They are being held while his decade-long case for asylum is grinding through the courts.

Emilio, a journalist, had applied for asylum in the U.S. after writing about Mexican corruption on the part of the government and the military. That's a dangerous thing to do, and when the military raided his house one night in revenge, he ran.

To write about Mexican corruption is important and noble and deadly. At least a dozen Mexican journalists have been killed in the past year. Some were already under what is considered a "protection program" run by the government.

It seems to be that in name only. Were Gutirrez-Soto to be deported, Spector is clear: "He's dead."

It's more than the story of this one man that horrifies Spector. He is astonished by what is happening on the border and he thinks the U.S. President is failing to understand something fundamental about why people are crossing over from Mexico.

"You have to help those countries develop strong democratic institutions and develop a system of accountability. Then people will stay."

Spector argues the level of repression in Mexico against journalists, alongside the U.S. response of denying asylum to those like Gutirrez-Soto, has had a chilling effect on free press in Mexico. And if people cannot feel as if they have a place to take their fears and grievances and whistleblowing, then they have no safety.

Fleeing becomes the only way out.

Certainly for Gutirrez-Soto, there is no way out of a terrible limbo. Mexico would mean death, but immigration detention with no end in sight isn't life either.

• WATCH: Adrienne Arsenault's feature on Emilio Gutirrez-Soto tonight on The National on CBC Television and streamed online

• Like this newsletter?Sign upand have it delivered by email.
• You may also like our early-morning newsletter, the Morning Briefstart the day with the news you need in one quick and concise read.Sign up here.

Prescription addiction - when numbers become human

Tara Carman on the human side of the prescription drugs investigation she and Vik Adhopia have been reporting on this week.

When Vik Adhopia and I started our investigation into Canada's missing prescription drugs, we weren't sure where it would take us.

We crunched all the numbers around what went missing and why, but for me the question became who's using these drugs.

What we found was a lot of people who are in pain.

They had been prescribed opioids, become addicted, and were then cut off by doctors.

Vik's story on The National tonight features one such story the mother of a young man who started taking painkillers after his wisdom teeth were extracted.

He became addicted and his doctor wouldn't continue prescribing. So he turned to dangerous street sources and died of an overdose.

I heard similar stories in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, a place where some of those whose addictions started with prescription painkillers ultimately end up. Sadly, it's a common theme there.

As a result, an important part of The National's report became how we can best take care of people who need support to get off these incredibly powerful drugs.

• WATCH: Vik Adhopia's story on the people affected by Canada's problem with addictions to prescription drugs, tonight on The National on CBC Television and streamed online
• READ: Tara Carman's feature on CBCNews.ca

Here's last night's story from The National on the missing prescription drug problem in Canada:

Lost and stolen controlled drugs are ending up on Canada's streets

6 years ago

Duration 8:03

Lost and stolen controlled drugs are ending up on Canada's streets, and it's becoming a bigger problem across the country. CBC News looks at how these drugs are disappearing and the impact its having on Canadians.

Quote of the moment

"Europe has many challenges, but that of migration could determine the fate of the European Union."

- German Chancellor Angela Merkel warns her parliament that the EU is facing a make-or-break moment as populist politicians including members of her own coalition push for tough new border measures.

What The National is reading

• Putin, Trump will hold firstsummit in Helsinki on July 16 (CBC)
• German man suspected of killing 21 co-workers by poisoning their food (Deutsche Welle)
• Heat wave could force changes to Parliament Hill Canada Day show (CBC)
• U.S. tariffs hit mills making steel for new Canadian naval vessels (National Post)
• Will an alleged war criminal become president of Myanmar? (Asia Times)
• Fire rips through central Nairobi, killing 15 (CBC)
• 'Unbearable' smelling airline passenger causes emergency landing, dies of tissue necrosis (Fox News)
• Elon Musk accused of stealing farting unicorn image (BBC)

Today in history

June 28, 1981: Terry Fox Dies

Shortly before 5 a.m., a month before his 23rd birthday, Terry Fox passes away in a hospital in New Westminster, B.C. "Terry has completed the last kilometre of his marathon," says a tearful Alison Sinson, the deputy director of nursing. "He died surrounded by love the love of his family and the love and prayers of an entire nation."

1981: Terry Fox dies

43 years ago

Duration 2:23

One month before his 23rd birthday, Terry Fox passes away in a B.C. hospital. Aired June 28, 1981 on CBC's The National.

Sign up hereand have The National Today newsletter delivered directly to your inbox Monday to Friday.

Please send your ideas, news tips, rants, and compliments tothenationaltoday@cbc.ca.