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Thursday, March 21, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Spring ride Dominic Scichilone, 9, and his brother Anthony, 7, behind, spent the first day of spring enjoying the first bike ride of the year in the Exhibition Grounds parking lot on Wednesday afternoon.

Home invasion suspects at large Citizen staff

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Getting air Airah Truant competes during the 2019 Prince George Dance Festival in Vanier Hall on Wednesday morning. The festival, which runs until Friday, is celebrating its 43rd year in Prince George

Prince George RCMP are on the lookout for two men suspected of carrying out a home invasion. One of the two has been identified as Bradley Andre Ouellette, 29, of Prince George. He’s described as First Nations, five-foot-three, 111 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes, a scar around his right eye and tattoos on his arms. He and an accomplice, still to be identified, are wanted for a March 13 incident at a Columbia Road home, off Sintich Road, just south of city limits. Initial indications are that at least two men armed with guns forcibly entered the residence but fled before police arrived, taking off with cellphones, a purse and other items. Evidence of gunfire was also located, RCMP said. The home’s two occupants were shaken but unharmed. Crown counsel has approved 13 charges against Ouelette. Police are asking for the public’s help in tracking down Ouellette but warn he is consid-

OUELLETTE ered violent and should not be approached. Instead, call 911 immediately. Anyone with information about the offence or where either of the two may be are asked to call Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca (English only). You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers. If you provide information that leads to an arrest or recovery of stolen property, you could be eligible for a cash reward.

crime convict seeks to Driver in deadly rollover gets day parole Hate have defamation suit struck Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

A man serving a federal sentence for being behind the wheel during a high-speed rollover that led to the death of a friend and serious injuries to another has been granted day parole. Sentenced in July 2018, Dustin Allen Tisdale, 25, had been serving his time in a minimum security facility. He was granted day parole on March 6 and will be eligible for full parole on June 30, according to a Parole Board of Canada decision. He has been accepted at a halfway house in his “preferred geographical location,” which was not provided in the decision. Conditions include no consumption of alcohol and following a treatment plan for alcohol abuse.

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Devin Hawley-Barks, 21, was killed and Sara Willsie suffered long-lasting injuries in the March 12, 2016 crash on Highway 97 near Austin Road. It was preceded by a high-speed chase of an adversary, and according to the decision, Tisdale had been swerving and tried to run him off the road. “You passed him at a high rate of speed and hit the median, crashing your vehicle,” a review panel said in the decision. “Some estimates indicated that you were travelling in excess of 170 kilometres per hour.” Tisdale was “highly intoxicated” at the time and had admitted to a history of driving at high speeds while under the influence of alcohol. His truck was modified to point where it was capable of travelling as much as 250 km/h. Tisdale’s case management team

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has had a concern that his did not believe there was a link between his actions and alcohol. But during a hearing, the board was told he no longer denies being an alcoholic. Prior to the crash, Tisdale said he would drink and drive about once a month, going out to bars or bush parties. On the night of the offence, he was “desperate to get out of the house” after being at home with his wife and newborn for a few weeks. The panel found Tisdale was “appropriately emotional” in his closing statement and noted he said he can only imagine the pain he has caused. “You said you have moved outside the city limits and want a family life now,” the panel said. “You said you had committed to your wife that you will not drink again.”

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Citizen staff A Quesnel man convicted of promoting online hate is seeking to have dropped a defamation lawsuit brought against him by a former neo-Nazi skinhead who became dedicated to countering violent extremism. In a notice of application filed last week, Arthur Topham says Daniel Gallant has failed to provide any material facts supporting his notice of claim. The closest Gallant has come, he says, is to make an unsubstantiated assertion that Topham called him “a liar, terrorist and conspirator of an evil network” four years ago on a website which ceased to exist in 2017. Topham “specifically denies using such words.”

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Moreover, Topham asserts Gallant’s notice of civil claim, filed in March 2017, has expired because it was not served until March 1, 2019, slightly less than a year after it expired due to a lack of further action. A hearing on the application is tentatively scheduled for April 8 in B.C. Supreme Court in Prince George. In March 2018, Topham was sentenced to a six-month conditional sentence followed by two years of probation after a jury found him guilty of willfully promoting hatred against people of the Jewish religion. He was also ordered to refrain from posting his writings on any other internet forum where they can be read by the general public.

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