customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

knowledgeQuestion

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

A Canadian man who raped and murdered four indigenous women, carved up their bodies and disposed of them in rubbish bins, was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison.
Jeremy Skibicki, 37, was found guilty last month of the first-degree murders in Winnipeg, Manitoba, after the defence failed to prove that mental illness limited his capacity to commit the crimes.
Justice Glenn Joyal, who accused him of “inhumanity and barbarism” in his written verdict, handed Skibicki four concurrent life sentences – with no chance of parole for 25 years – in a case seen by many as a symbol of the plight of indigenous women in a country where they face disproportionate violence.
In court on Wednesday he added that the sentence “regrettably does not adequately reflect the gravity of these offences and your moral culpability”, according to local media.


Skibicki targeted indigenous women he met in homeless shelters between March and May 2022, his trial heard.
He brought them back to his flat to sexually assault them before strangling or drowning them in his bath, and then engaging in further sexual acts on their bodies.
The remains of his victims Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran are believed to have ended up in a landfill north of the city, which is currently being searched, while the partial remains of another victim, Rebecca Contois, were found in a garbage bin in Winnipeg and in a separate landfill.
The body of a fourth, unidentified woman in her 20s, whom Skibicki confessed to killing along with the others, is still missing. She was given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or “Buffalo Woman”, by local indigenous leaders.
Harris’ daughter Elle said listening at the trial how her mother was killed was “horrific to go through,” according to local media.
“The heinous crimes committed by Mr Skibicki have left deep scars on First Nations communities,” Grand Chief Cathy Merrick of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs was also quoted as telling the court.
At the time of Skibicki’s arrest in December 2022, the then-minister of Crown-Indigenous relations Marc Miller said the case was part of “a legacy of a devastating history” of Canada’s treatment of indigenous women “that has reverberations today”.
Indigenous women represent about one-fifth of all women killed in gender-related homicides in the country – even though they are just five per cent of the female population.
In 2019, a national commission went so far as to describe the thousands of murders and disappearances of First Nations women over the years as a “genocide”.
In his July verdict, Judge Joyal said the case was “emblematic of much of what is associated with the tragedies that underlie the grim reality of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada”.


AI pioneer Li Feifei raises US$230 million for new start-up World Labs

AI ‘accelerating’ climate crisis, uses 30 times more energy than search engine: analyst

US accuses Russian state broadcaster RT of conducting intelligence activities overseas

Canada in talks about joining expanded Aukus: ‘very optimistic’

Canada

Canadian serial killer sentenced to life in prison for murder, rape of indigenous women

Cathy Merrick, Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, during a vigil in front of Manitoba’s highest trial court in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on April 28, on the eve of the trial of Jeremy Skibicki. File photo: AFP

India’s rape-murder case sparks calls for more women protection, strong policing

Activists at a protest rally condemn the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata. Photo: AFP

A medical professional protesting against the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata. Photo: AFP

Security personnel guard RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata, where the rape and murder of a doctor happened on August 9. Photo: EPA-EFE

Canadian police warn aide of slain Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar of ‘threat to life’: separatist

A photo of Hardeep Singh Nijjar on a banner outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada in 2023. On Tuesday, Canadian police issued a “duty to warn” notice to Nijjar’s aide Inderjeet Singh Gosal. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP

Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York in 2023. Photo: AP

Indian doctor in US took thousands of images of naked adults and children as young as 2

Oumair Aejaz of Rochester Hills, Michigan, was arrested on August 8. Photo: Oakland County Sheriff’s Department via AP

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard speaks at a news conference. Photo: Detroit News via TNS

Canada joins US in new tariffs on Chinese EVs, steel, aluminium

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, during a news conference at a cabinet retreat in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Photo: Bloomberg

News

World

United States & Canada

Jeremy Skibicki handed four concurrent life sentences for four first-degree murders in Winnipeg, Manitoba


Jeremy Skibicki raped and murdered four women, carved up their bodies and disposed of them in rubbish bins in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
