A woman and two men were convicted earlier this week in connection with a violent 2021 robbery in Port Sydney.
Appearing in a Bracebridge court, Collin Pike-Fournier, 25, of Scarborough, Joseph Degrace, 22, of Oshawa and Rebecca Jones, 29, of Pickering all pled guilty to various charges.
Court heard that the victim had been invited to a party for his birthday, and a vehicle with several people picked him up and brought him to an Airbnb in Port Sydney.
At one point the victim became engaged in a dispute over drugs with Pike-Fournier, who began punching him in the head. Degrace then became involved, hitting the victim in the head with a 9 mm handgun that he had on his person. He then put the gun to the victim’s head and asked Pike-Fournier whether he should kill the victim. Pike-Fournier told Degrace not to.
The victim was then strip searched by Degrace to ensure he had not taken any drugs. His belt and phone were taken from him and he was thrown out of the house.
The victim contacted police from a nearby store and told them what had happened, and that the parties had left the Airbnb in a car.
The police caught up with the suspect vehicle on Highway 11 in Bracebridge and found three people inside. Police also found a loaded 9 mm handgun and 11 rounds of ammunition, 9 g of methamphetamine, 133 g of powder cocaine, 30 g of fentanyl, 168 tablets of oxycodone and more than 1,300 methamphetamine tablets.
Pike-Fournier pled guilty to assault causing bodily harm. Jones pled guilty to possession of cocaine, and DeGrace pled guilty to several charges including robbery.
All three are set to be sentenced at a later date.
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To Tom Spivak: I agree; get serious with REHABILITATION. And, before it even gets that far – work on the underlying causes of addiction and/or crime (e.g. mental health). Sentencing the person to jail time will serve to provide a consequence for his/her crime and, remove that person from society at large; however, I wonder about the recidivism rate. Sadly, for some, it is just a revolving door of crime, jail time, release, and more crime/drug use.
I am not condoning their behaviour but, we can hold compassion for all beings.
What in the world does the rental market have to do with this?
This happens all over Muskoka in one form or another, rentals, homes, motels, automobiles.
Should we ban everything?
Let’s start getting serious about rehabilitation and sentencing in this country and in Muskoka which has had 300 opiate deaths in Parry Sound Muskoka in the last year.
Drugs and crime are the problem, not rentals.
So many things to say here, but I’ll leave it at a few.
Firstly, the fact that this victim contacted police is amazing in itself, good for him. Most victims live in fear and stay quiet.
Secondly, these 3 need to receive federal sentences, though I’m wary our courts will have the guts to impose a real sentence anymore.
Lastly, we need to do something about the rental market, if we have these kind of creeps renting, we need to find a mechanism to deter these types of “tourists”. I honestly don’t know how, but I really feel worried for those neighbours in Port Sydney who could have been caught in the middle.
This is a sad reflection on how low our society has sunken into the cesspool. What a pathetic bunch of social misfits. While I feel a little sorry for the victim, his situation reminds me of the saying “if you sleep with dogs, you’re going to get fleas”. Still let’s hope that the justice system throws the book at them, LoL. A good slap on the wrist is what they deserve.
They need to be put in jail for a very long time. Pistol whip someone with an illegal gun, then point it at them and threaten to shoot him. All the drugs. How many would the fentanyl have killed, if it wasn’t taken off our streets. This is out of control and the courts are not helping.