Juno News - September 17, 2024


Woman charged with 'Assault with a weapon' in neighbourhood water gun fight

Mentioned
Wendy Wasik Harrison
Names of alleged TRAITORS in Parliament HIDDEN from Canadians ANOTHER assassination attempt + Trump does it AGAIN

Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

168.56

Word count

1,765

Sentence count

126

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Wendy Wasik was enjoying a neighborhood get together over Labor Day weekend when she picked up a water gun and had a water fight with one of the neighbor s children. Now, you might think that a woman carrying such a dangerous weapon, like a Water Gun, would require immediate police attention if someone were to catch a stray water squirt. Well, that's exactly what happened. Wasik is now facing a criminal charge of assault with a weapon.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Well, if you think the Canadian justice system and law enforcement have lost their way over the past few years, just wait until you hear this story.
00:00:09.940 Wendy Wasik, a Simcoe, Ontario woman, was enjoying a neighborhood get-together over Labor Day long weekend when she picked up a water gun and had a water fight with one of the neighbor's children. 0.99
00:00:21.720 Now, you might think that a woman carrying such a dangerous weapon, like a water gun, would require immediate police attention if someone were to, unfortunately, catch a stray water squirt.
00:00:33.660 Well, that's exactly what happened.
00:00:35.200 Wasik is now facing a criminal charge of assault with a weapon, which actually means now that the OPP consider a water gun to be a weapon, even after an investigation.
00:00:45.020 This is a story of police incompetence and a mind-boggling waste of police resources, resulting in a woman's life being ruined after a playful neighborhood water gun fight. 0.57
00:00:57.520 So joining us now on The Faulkner Show is Wendy Wasik. Wendy, thank you so much for joining us.
00:01:02.720 Thank you, Harrison.
00:01:03.780 Okay, so explain to us what happened here, how a 58-year-old school employee holding a water gun could end up with an assault with a weapon charge.
00:01:13.800 Well, it was Labor Day weekend on the Sunday, September 1st.
00:01:18.120 We were invited over to a few, over to a neighbor's with a few people there that we hadn't met because we've only been in the community for a couple of years.
00:01:27.840 So it was just a small gathering, maybe 10 of us.
00:01:30.800 And when we went into the backyard, we were sitting and chatting, having some food.
00:01:35.960 And while we were there, I noticed there was a young boy.
00:01:38.860 I believe he's 10 years old, and there wasn't any other kids there at that time.
00:01:44.020 So he looked bored, and I asked him if he had any water guns, and he said, yeah.
00:01:48.100 And I said, well, let's run across the street and go grab them.
00:01:50.620 So we ran across the street, filled them up, and started squirting each other.
00:01:55.860 We proceeded to go into the backyard where the little get-together was and squirted some people there. 0.93
00:02:00.600 And then the young boy ran out of the gate, and I ran after him.
00:02:06.560 And while I was running after him, I was pumping the water gun to try and get the water out.
00:02:11.460 And while I was doing that, I was squirting.
00:02:13.960 And I just happened to notice that the neighbor was out, and I ended up squirting him by accident.
00:02:20.600 He was about three feet away from where I was, cutting his grass.
00:02:28.200 I continued to go over and apologize to him because he was very, very upset.
00:02:36.360 Apologized several times, and he did not accept my apology.
00:02:39.980 And by then, because he was screaming so loud that the rest of the people in the backyard came out to see what the commotion was.
00:02:45.820 And he was not willing to listen to me.
00:02:49.780 He wasn't willing to listen to the neighbors.
00:02:51.980 They were saying it was an accident, too.
00:02:54.480 He went in, called the police.
00:02:58.880 So we were all sticking around in the backyard, thinking we were going to be questioned on what happened.
00:03:04.980 45 minutes later, my husband was out front talking to the police, and they said,
00:03:10.500 you need to go get your wife in the backyard. 1.00
00:03:13.380 She's being charged with assault with a weapon.
00:03:16.820 And my husband was, like, in disbelief and couldn't believe it.
00:03:23.580 So he came and got me, and he took me to the police car.
00:03:28.960 They didn't arrest me, but they did fill out a citation, and I am charged with assault with a weapon.
00:03:36.280 I signed it and went home.
00:03:39.360 This is incredible.
00:03:40.380 So you said that the OPP were speaking to your husband, but they didn't speak to any of the – did they speak to any bystanders, and did they speak to you?
00:03:47.820 Because in the Toronto Star, the reporting indicates that there was an investigation, and after that investigation, you were charged and taken into custody.
00:03:57.500 So what kind of investigation was done?
00:04:00.980 The investigation was with the gentleman that charged me with assault with a weapon.
00:04:08.120 The police did not ask me a single question.
00:04:11.040 They didn't ask to see the child's water gun.
00:04:14.200 They didn't ask any neighbor a question.
00:04:16.360 They talked to the gentleman that charged me, and that was it.
00:04:21.940 Wow.
00:04:22.500 And you may not be able to answer this.
00:04:24.240 I'm not exactly sure.
00:04:25.680 But has anybody from the police, the police that have carried through with this charge, have they communicated with you since your story has become national news, and it's gone extremely viral on social media?
00:04:36.980 I haven't heard a thing from the police, yeah.
00:04:42.500 That's unbelievable.
00:04:44.460 So we know that, you know, Norfolk County is dealing with similar crime issues like the rest of Ontario and Canada,
00:04:51.300 specifically with a recent string of carjackings, which have really unfortunately become all too familiar for Canadians in the last few years.
00:04:58.520 But does your local OPP detachment have this much free time to go after a local school employee with a water gun?
00:05:09.080 Well, I guess you wouldn't think so.
00:05:12.080 We have crime here, just like you said, but I guess they do.
00:05:18.740 I don't know what to say to that because it is a waste of money and resources.
00:05:23.300 And, you know, someone could have been out there being called for something else, much more serious.
00:05:30.840 Of course.
00:05:31.880 And besides you being the one that's actually, that has actually been charged for this in your wildest dreams,
00:05:38.220 could you ever imagine the local police detachment charging a woman with assault with a weapon after using a water gun?
00:05:46.600 But besides you being the actual person on the receiving end of this charge,
00:05:51.040 could you even dream that this would be possible for your local police detachment to go through with something like this?
00:05:57.080 You know what?
00:05:58.600 I was at my second day of work.
00:06:00.480 I only got through part of the day.
00:06:02.240 Actually, it was my first day of work back.
00:06:04.140 And my daughter called and said, you know what?
00:06:06.280 You're in the news.
00:06:07.980 Your name is disclosed.
00:06:09.740 Your age and that you were charged with assault with a white weapon.
00:06:13.600 And that's all that was said.
00:06:14.980 And I just couldn't believe that.
00:06:19.320 I couldn't believe they'd use my name and say assault with a weapon without saying it was a water gun.
00:06:24.860 Right.
00:06:25.680 And assault with a weapon is a serious charge, right?
00:06:29.020 Like, I can't believe that you would be found guilty for this.
00:06:33.960 But if you are found guilty for assault with a weapon, what kind of punishment are you looking at?
00:06:40.700 You know what, Harrison?
00:06:41.720 I haven't even looked into that.
00:06:43.160 I haven't asked about it because I will lose more sleep if I look into that.
00:06:50.140 That'll just set me back on my emotional roller coaster again.
00:06:55.540 Right.
00:06:56.220 No, I can imagine.
00:06:58.120 Now, if Canadians want to get involved with your case and they want to support you, how can they do that?
00:07:05.260 Well, we did have a GoFundMe going, but that was canceled because I guess they can't do criminal cases.
00:07:14.780 So we were able to get some money from them that was raised, but not all of it.
00:07:18.800 So we started a Give, Send, Go under my name, Wendy Wasik, and we're looking to raise as much as we can with that.
00:07:27.620 We also have a Change.org.
00:07:30.860 It's a petition out there that my son started.
00:07:33.160 We just want to get the petition to take to the Crown when it comes time.
00:07:40.340 Right.
00:07:41.080 And I'm not exactly sure how or what the process is, but, you know, have anybody from the township or the region or your town or even at a political level reached out to you to see what's going on here?
00:07:55.540 Because it just seems, it just seems, one, like a serious embarrassment for your local police detachment and for the town.
00:08:02.760 Yeah.
00:08:03.840 I am supposed to be meeting with our, my MPP tomorrow.
00:08:08.440 She's been really busy, but she is wanting to get together with me tomorrow.
00:08:13.180 Well, that's good to hear.
00:08:14.180 At least somebody wants to speak with you and get your side of the story that represents, that represents the government.
00:08:20.240 Because I can't, I can't, really can't imagine something as embarrassing as this happening.
00:08:26.680 Do you have any background with, with, with the, with the law?
00:08:31.940 Any background running into the law, using weapons at all?
00:08:36.300 No, I don't have any background, but my husband's a retired OPP.
00:08:41.200 Really?
00:08:42.060 So.
00:08:42.360 Yeah.
00:08:43.420 Unbelievable.
00:08:43.980 So OPP officers spoke with your husband before they, before they charged you and he himself is a former officer.
00:08:51.860 Yeah.
00:08:53.080 And you have no, you have, you've never, you've never run into the law yourself at all.
00:08:58.520 Other than a speeding ticket, no.
00:09:01.760 Well, that, that really is, it really is astonishing.
00:09:05.360 And we hope that your story can get out there because from what you've said and from what has been reported in the news, I really, I really can't believe this is happening.
00:09:14.780 And I do genuinely have sympathy for you and your family because this is, this is a, this is a stunning, stunning story.
00:09:22.240 And one that I think speaks to the, the, the ways that we see in law enforcement and also the fact that, that this is even, this is even being contemplated by the police.
00:09:35.000 Do you have any, any other comments you would like to give to our audience and any other words that you would like to, to, to share with the audience today?
00:09:43.800 No, I don't think so.
00:09:44.980 Well, um, you know what, my two children and my husband have been traumatized over this.
00:09:51.120 They're having a hard time continuing their life because they're trying to help me because I'm not that great with all this stuff online.
00:09:58.560 Um, yeah, it's just been traumatic for the four of us.
00:10:03.440 I can imagine if, if any of the audience wants to financially help you, Wendy, or if they want to, um, uh, add their voice to add their name, rather to the petition,
00:10:13.840 the audience can find links to that in the description of this video, Wendy, thank you for joining us today.
00:10:19.580 And thank you for sharing your side of the story.
00:10:22.000 We hope that it gets more attention.
00:10:24.420 Thanks so much, Harrison, for reaching out.
00:10:26.100 I really appreciate it.
00:10:27.640 Thank you.