Posted: Feb 01, 2021 8:31 PM CT | Last Updated: February 2
The nickel was taken from a property belonging to Vale Canada Ltd., whose Thompson, Man., mining site is shown here.(CBC)
A Manitoba metal recycling company is on the hook after buying hundreds of thousands of pounds of stolen nickel worth millions of dollars, a judge ruled.
Court of Queen s Bench Justice Shauna McCarthy awarded mining company Vale Canada Ltd. a summary judgment against Urbanmine, Inc., which purchased and resold 483,396 pounds of nickel stolen from a compound in Thompson, Man., over the course of nearly 10 months between July 2012 and May 2013.
In her decision on Aug. 27, 2020, McCarthy also awarded Vale a default judgment against the Schwartz Bros. construction company and a number of its employees, all but one of whom pled guilty to criminal charges related to the thefts and were ordered to pay restitution.
Thompson RCMP have issued an arrest warrant for Michael James Schwartz, 30, co-owner of Schwartz Bros Construction Limited on Cree Road, on charges of theft over $5,000 and multiple counts of possession of property obtained by crime and possession of the proceeds from crime in connection with the theft of four bundles of nickel plates valued at $110,000 from Vale s Thompson smelter in mid-May, Cpl. Miles Hiebert, a media relations spokesperson for RCMP D Division in Winnipeg, said July 30. Photograph By Thompson Citizen photo composite by Ryan Lynds
Thompson RCMP have issued an arrest warrant for Michael James Schwartz, 30, co-owner of Schwartz Bros Construction Limited on Cree Road, on charges of theft over $5,000 and multiple counts of possession of property obtained by crime and possession of the proceeds from crime in connection with the theft of four bundles of nickel plates valued at $110,000 from Vale s Thompson smelter in mid-May, Cpl. Miles Hiebert,
Fran Blowitz
Fran Blowitz, who with her husband John owned and operated the Gazette Newspapers from 1981 to 2004, died in November.
After purchasing the paper, Fran and John developed Gazette Newspapers into a two-paper, 66,000 combined-circulation business employing 20 people.
Fran and John were co-publishers, with Fran handling the business end of the operation. She worked tirelessly to keep the business in the black. John said many times that he might be the public face of the
Grunion, but that Fran was the brains behind the operation.
During that time, Fran came up with something she called Valentine s Date Night, which grew to a fundraiser for the heart programs at Long Beach s three major hospitals raising around $40,000 each event.