Downtown assault prompts calls for stricter bail conditions

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This article was published 18/01/2025 (243 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The recent assault of an elderly man, who was struck in the face with a baseball bat on Wednesday afternoon in Brandon’s downtown, has prompted calls for stricter bail conditions in light of the accused facing similar prior charges.

Following the assault, Brandon Police Service (BPS) officers arrested a suspect on the 800 block of Rosser Avenue. He was identified as Dexter Kyle Wambdiska, 43, on Friday and has a history of using weapons to violently assault others, BPS Chief Tyler Bates told the Sun on Friday.

“We have an accused that has been arrested and remanded into custody in relation to the assault that took place. It’s concerning, obviously, you have an incident like that in broad daylight involving a crude weapon, like a baseball bat,” said Bates, adding, “This particular accused that we’ve arrested and laid charges on, he is also before the courts in relation to an incident that transpired in Winnipeg, and he’s awaiting disposition.”

“Given that he’s repeatedly involving himself in assaults involving weapons, it’s our hope that he’s detained in custody. And that’s out of our control, but with a repeated pattern of violence, that would be our hope is that he remains in custody to deal with his outstanding charges, but we’ll see what transpires as far as that’s concerned,” Chief Bates said.

Bates also reiterated the need for stricter bail conditions to deter repeat offenders from committing more crimes of a similar nature.

The attack has also spotlighted continuing safety concerns raised by Brandonites relating to the city’s downtown. Bates said that while BPS already has a strong presence in the Wheat City’s core, it may need to do even more so that businesses and residents are not fearful about random acts of violence taking place.

“It’s not lost on us that we need to maintain a permanent presence and to have police visibility to be engaged with our community. We’re certainly trying to be as readily available and as accessible as we can be. We’re going to look at opportunities down the road here to grow our police presence and visibility, and as far as our cadet program is concerned.”

“The eyes and ears and the presence that they have, walking around and driving around the downtown area persistently throughout their day, is a real asset to Brandon Police Service in terms of situational awareness of what’s transpiring in the area,” Bates elaborated further.

Weighing in on the subject of bail reform failing to deter criminals from reoffending, Brandon’s former Chief of Police Wayne Balcaen pointed to the justice system’s loosened criteria for granting bail to violent criminals, and how that has contributed to public safety concerns. He also explained that Brandon has historically been a safe place, but expressed concerns about this most recent assault, as well as others that have happened in recent months.

“Brandon has always been a very safe city, but it’s certainly had its share of violent crime, particularly in the last, let’s say, two or three months, I think about the random attack that the student at Brandon University was subject to, and now this downtown. So these are really unprecedented for Brandon, and are certainly random and rightfully will have our citizens concerned,” said Balcaen, who is now the Progressive Conservative’s (PC) Critic for Justice and elected Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Brandon West.

“I certainly have called on this government repeatedly to contact the federal government and stiffen up the conditions of release and the bail reform act or processes to get people released on bail. It’s a serious, serious issue, not just in Brandon but across Manitoba and Canada, and it’s one that I know we were working with, collaboratively with all of the other premiers across the province,” said Balcaen, who was also critical of the role Manitoba’s New Democrat Party (NDP) has played in allowing an environment where dangerous criminals are often released by the justice system, allowing them to easily reoffend.

“I hope our provincial NDP government will step up and help out with the financial side of that. The Downtown Community Safety partnership that our government (Progressive Conservatives) started here in Winnipeg, was a very successful partnership with the community and it was one of our election promises of the PC government to fund $2 million towards that in Brandon, but the NDP has offered a very little snippet of that money and no action,” the MLA from Manitoba said in addition to citing the importance of policies that are tougher on crime.

NDP’s Minister of Justice Matt Wiebe expectedly disagreed with Balcaen’s view, blaming the opposition, while highlighting the efforts made by the current government to discourage criminals who are habitually committing the same crimes over and over again. He also touched upon the negative impact this can have on the community’s morale. Despite their difference in opinion, both Balcaen and Wiebe conceded that bail conditions need to be made stricter.

“Our position as a government is to be tough on crime and also tough on the causes of crime. We’ve taken action, certainly in Brandon, specifically where we partnered with the city, and we announced $100,000 just over the last summer to start improving downtown safety. The mayor has been a great partner in that, and we’re developing the Downtown Community Safety Program for initial steps in Brandon,” Wiebe said during an interview with the Sun on Friday afternoon.

“We’ve implemented a five-point bail program that came directly from the recommendations of the National Police Federation, including enhanced bail monitoring, and we expanded that just this summer with electronic monitoring, which has now been expanded outside of the city of Winnipeg. So we’re taking these steps, and we’re going to continue to take steps where we can, within Manitoba, go after repeat offenders and say clearly that we’re going to take strong action on bail reform, while calling upon the federal government to do their share,” he said, while also criticizing the federal government’s lack of cooperation with Manitoba’s provincial leaders.

“We continue to call on the federal government to look at bail reform and to, you know, to look at the legislation they brought forward and strengthen it, considering what communities are dealing with. You know, this is, these are serious issues and serious concerns that communities across the province have. And so when I went to meet with my federal and provincial counterparts, this was a clear message that we brought from Manitoba and for quite frankly, all provinces joined in when the premier was in, you know, meeting with the Council of the Federation, with other premiers,” Wiebe added.

However, local residents and businesses in the community have found the incident disturbing, especially among the group of more than 100 individuals, who attended the city’s annual State of the Downtown event recently. The event was hosted by Brandon Downtown BIZ and Brandon Downtown Development Corporation (BDDC) on Wednesday evening, just hours after the heinous assault took place.

“I think there was a very good discussion there about the positives. There were business owners out there talking about the positives. There was BDDC talking about things that are going on down there. We also had people that run the hub and do our housing and homelessness work in all those areas, to explain how we’re working with that,” Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett told the Sun in an interview on Friday. The mayor conceded that such random acts of violence are alarming, but he does not want his constituents to live their lives in fear.

“Random is always something that is scary, but random can happen everywhere and anywhere. It doesn’t have to be downtown. It can happen anywhere, but our community works really well together. So there’s all kinds of people in the community not committing crimes like that because our systems do work. We don’t have this happen all the time in our city,” Fawcett highlighted in an effort to reassure the public that awful crimes are not specific to the city’s downtown area, and that evil people commit brutal crimes all across the globe.

Organizers of the event held at city hall were saddened to learn about the vicious assault, which happened earlier that day.

“I was heartbroken when I saw that headline, and I was very sad for the individuals it happened to first and foremost. It’s so disappointing, especially in light of the event we held this week at city hall, where everyone acknowledged there’s challenges in our downtown. Every downtown in North America is struggling with the same thing, and there’s so much good work being done, and that’s what we really highlighted on Wednesday night,” said Emmy Sanderson, the executive director of Brandon’s Downtown BIZ.

“We just have to keep doing what we’re doing, because there’s so much good work, and we’re on such a good path. And while something like this feels like we’re taking a step in the wrong direction, it can’t stop us from continuing to do all the work we’re doing,” Sanderson added.

While information about Dexter Wambdiska’s future remains unclear, BPS confirmed that their investigation is continuing, and it is possible that the accused may have assaulted others in addition to the 67-year-old victim. He is also facing similar charges from Winnipeg Police Service for assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon, and more. More information will be released once BPS concludes its investigation.

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