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An off-duty RCMP officer “displayed questionable judgment” but will not face charges for chasing down a group of teenagers who pranked his home last fall, handcuffing and traumatizing a 13-year-old girl.

“Despite the fact that (the officer’s) actions displayed questionable judgment and seem to be extreme, considering the entirety of the evidence, I am not in a position to say that his actions are criminal,” Bruce Sychuk, acting civilian director of the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, wrote in his final report on the incident, released Monday.

“What is clear is that (the girl) continues to suffer trauma from the incident.”

Manitoba’s police watchdog was tapped to review the Oct. 19, 2025, incident after the unnamed officer was arrested by members of the Brandon Police Service, who responded to a 911 call at a home in the western Manitoba city.

For years, the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys (“MACA”) has been engaged in a dispute with the Manitoba government over the workload of its lawyers. That dispute is expected to come to a head at the end of November, when two weeks of grievance hearings are scheduled.

We remain hopeful that we can reach an agreement with our employer. But if we cannot, our union’s lawyers are prepared to make our case. As those hearings approach, we want to explain how we got here, what is at stake, and why this dispute matters beyond the working conditions of our members.

These problems are longstanding and predate the election of Manitoba’s current government. Our concern with the current government is not that it created these problems, but that it is now responsible for addressing them.

Despite the evidence before it, the government has not meaningfully addressed the workload concerns we have raised throughout its time in office.

“I would not like to call this an incident. Let’s say it’s a diplomatic misunderstanding,” said Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha. But the South Korean president definitely sees it as a serious incident, and he has already gone public with it.

“If (Ukraine’s) refusal to acknowledge the facts and issue a public apology continues, we will take additional measures,” President Lee Jae-myung wrote on X. He probably means cutting the non-military aid South Korea gives to Ukraine. (There is no military aid, since the constitution bans Seoul from providing arms to a country actively involved in a war).

What monstrous misdeed did the Ukrainian government commit to deserve such harsh words from a country that is generally sympathetic to Ukraine’s struggle against its giant neighbour? Have the South Koreans discovered Ukrainian spies in the Blue House?

No, it’s what we professionals call a “spat.”