No bail for Canupawakpa man accused of aggravated assault

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This article was published 28/07/2025 (241 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Canupawakpa man who allegedly assaulted two men months after serving time for prior violent offences was denied bail in Brandon provincial court on Thursday.

Keesic Brown, 24, is charged with assault causing bodily harm, aggravated assault, assault, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and possession of a weapon contrary to a release order.

The Crown opposed Brown’s release and said he “demonstrated he’s a public safety risk.”

Easton Lacey, an articling student with the Crown Attorney’s Office, read the allegations.

Brown called Manitoba First Nations Police in Canupawakpa on April 3 and said a man had assaulted him. Lacey said police went to the residence and found Brown had bloody lips.

Police found and arrested the man who allegedly assaulted him, but the man told police Brown had also assaulted him. Police arrested Brown too.

Both men had an odour of alcohol on their breath, Lacey said.

After further discussion, police found out the fight was consensual and neither of the men wanted to press charges, Lacey said.

Brown told the police to check on a man named Elias Sutherland as he had been beaten up “pretty good.”

One of the men told police where he had last seen Sutherland, and police kept both men in custody while they looked for him.

Police found a man “with a swollen face and blood coming down his face to his neck with a cut on the left side of his face and multiple bruises,” Lacey said.

The man gave a statement to police, alleging Brown came to his home and assaulted him — punching and kicking him multiple times.

Lacey said Sutherland told police the other man allegedly showed up and began assaulting him as well. Sutherland escaped his residence and fled to the house where police found him.

Brown was arrested and released on an undertaking.

On July 9, MFNP received a call that an intoxicated man with a stab wound on his hand was walking on the side of a road.

Lacey said a second anonymous caller said Brown’s mother was waving people down, asking for the police to come to her home because her son was bleeding.

When police arrived, Brown was standing outside, and police noticed his breath smelled of alcohol. Brown told the police his hand was injured but didn’t disclose how.

Police cleared the residence, and inside found Brown’s brother, Stewart.

“Stewart had suffered an inch-and-a-half-long laceration to his left hand,” Lacey said. “He was unable to move his pinky and ring finger.”

Police noticed an odour of alcohol on his breath, too.

Emergency medical services took Stewart to the hospital, and he later gave a statement.

“He advised that Mr. Brown was his brother and had assaulted him with a rake as it had sunk into his hand after being struck by him,” she said.

At the time of the alleged assault, Brown was on a two-year probation order from March, with a condition to not contact Stewart after he pleaded guilty to stabbing him in the chest in March, Lacey said.

Police arrested Brown and took him to the Waywayseecappo detachment.

“He’s a significant risk to the complainant and shown complete disregard for the complainant’s safety. He pleaded guilty to stabbing his brother … the victim again of the most recent aggravated assault,” Lacey said.

Defence lawyer Anthony Dawson said Brown denied all the charges.

“He has a very different version of events as to what went down that day,” he said.

Dawson said Brown would go to treatment as part of his bail plan, but said he hasn’t received confirmation of his bed date and only has a copy of Brown’s application.

“He is trying to get sober. He is recognizing his addiction issues and is taking the steps to try and deal with them,” Dawson said.

Dawson said Brown has Gladue factors. His mother, who is now an amputee, went to residential school, and there was a lot of drinking and fighting around his residence growing up.

Brown’s bail plan would have him living in Canupawakpa with his mother, just a few houses down from where his brother lives. Dawson said this was the only address available to him.

Dawson said he would agree to no-contact and not-attend conditions with his brother but asked the court not to impose a distance clause since they will be living in close proximity.

Lacey said the Crown doesn’t believe Brown should be living in Canupawakpa at all.

Judge Patrick Sullivan said that while the bail plan had some strengths — such as the treatment program — it also had “significant weaknesses.”

“He’s going be living in the same community, in very close proximity to his brother, the complainant of these matters and someone he’s allegedly previously breached his release order … in a manner that resulted in an aggravated assault,” he said.

Brown will appear in Virden provincial court in August.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com