Drive-by shootings, arson and murder: is the Indian government trying to silence Canada’s Sikh activists?

Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Sat, October 19, 2024 

A photograph of Hardeep Singh Nijjar is seen outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib, in Surrey, British Columbia, on Tuesday.Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock


On one summer night in Ontario, a Canadian Sikh activist received a panicked call from his wife: police had come to the family home and warned her that his life was at risk.

Two weeks later and thousands of kilometers away, a gunman in the province of British Columbia filmed himself firing a volley of bullets into the home of a prominent Indo-Canadian singer as two vehicles burned in the driveway.

Both instances – together with a string of arsons, extortion schemes, drive-by shootings and at least two murders – are now believed to be part of a wide-ranging and violent campaign of intimidation across Canada orchestrated by India’s government.

Last September, the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, suggested there were “credible allegations potentially linking” Indian officials with the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen and Sikh activist, who was shot dead in British Columbia.

Until recently, the scope and depth of those allegations were not clear. This week, however, Canadian police made the explosive accusation that Indian diplomats had worked with a criminal network led by a notorious imprisoned gangster to target Sikh dissidents in the country.

India rejected the allegations as “strange” and “ludicrous”.

But Canadian officials point to a string of cases over the past few years they suspect are part of a broader, India-sanctioned campaign to intimidate, coerce and kill.

In September 2023, only two days after Trudeau’s initial suggestion of a link to the Indian government, a fugitive Indian gangster called Sukhdool Singh Gill was killed in a hail of gunfire in a Winnipeg home.

Gill, a member of the Bambiha gang, was wanted in India on charges of extortion, attempted murder and murder. But Indian officials also said he was also linked to the separatist Khalistan movement, which aspires to establish a Sikh homeland in Punjab.

Inderjeet Brar, who lived nearby, says he and his wife heard nearly a dozen shots fired that morning and footage from a security camera facing his backyard captured three men fleeing Gill’s house.

A year later, police on Vancouver Island were called to the house of AP Dhillon, a prominent singer and producer who was born in Punjab and grew up Canada. The building had been peppered with gunfire, and two vehicles were charred ruins.

Footage of the attack – apparently filmed by one of the assailants – was later posted online and shared widely in India. The British Columbia public safety minister called the attack “absolutely outrageous”.

Both attacks were claimed by members of a notorious gang run by India’s most feared crime boss, Lawrence Bishnoi, whose network has been linked to some of the most high-profile crimes in the country – despite the fact that Bishnoi has been imprisoned since 2014.

Canadian police say the government of Narendra Modi has been using organized crime syndicates such as the Bishnoi gang, as part of its strategy to pursue opponents and rivals.

“There can be overlapping motivations to target certain people or groups,” said Harjeet Singh Grewal, an assistant professor of Sikh studies at the University of Calgary. “And I think that’s what we’re seeing right now: overlapping interests for both the gangs – who might want to settle scores and gain an ‘economic benefit’ – and [the Indian government, which is] targeting activists.”

In the case of Dhillon, whose stardom spans multiple countries, a recent decision to feature Bollywood star Salman Khan in a music video apparently angered Bishnoi, who has pledged to kill the actor over a longstanding feud.

Grewal says Dhillon also lent his support to Punjabi farmers during their months-long protest in 2021, with Indian media suggesting his song Farmer spread “pro-Khalistan” messages that angered the Modi government.

“There’s a deep tradition in Punjabi music and lyrics that speak to the powers that be about disenfranchisement,” said Grewal. “Some of these artists [in India] who spread these messages are now dead – and their deaths are connected to crime syndicates.”

Related: Lawrence Bishnoi: the feared Indian mob boss implicated in Canada killings

A 2022 report from Canada’s intelligence agency flagged a growing concern over organized crime, warning gangs with entrenched operations represented a “significant” public safety and societal threat.

“Their structure and membership are increasingly fluid, often creating opportunistic criminal relationships with national and international networks and associates,” the report said.

Trudeau made an explicit connection between Bishnoi and the Indian government during his testimony at a commission investigating foreign interference this week.

But for those living close to the violence, links between the Indian government and organized crime doesn’t come as a surprise.

“I think there’s a way in which Modi helps the Bishnoi gang and the Bishnoi gang helps Modi,” said Brar. “If Bishnoi is giving interviews and overseeing his gang from a jail cell, it means the government is likely involved in some way. Otherwise, how could he do this?”

Brar turned his video footage over to the police, but now worries his family could face recriminations when they visit India.

“We’re just trying to go about our lives and yet we worry if we too will pay some cost for speaking up,” he said.

India has long accused the Canadian government for being soft on supporters of the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India but is more prevalent among the diaspora in Canada. New Delhi has argued that Canada has for decades failed to confront what it says are Sikh militants and failed to extradite gang members for prosecution at home.

But experts say that India’s rapid rise from developing nation to global superpower has also come with a growing sense it can act with relative impunity – both domestically and outside its borders.

Earlier this year, the increasingly pugnacious Indian prime minister made an extraordinary public boast that he was able to extract retribution for dissent, saying: “Today, even India’s enemies know: this is Modi, this is the New India. This New India comes into your home to kill you.”

In the case of its covert Canada operation, agents working out of India’s high commission in Ottawa and consulates in Vancouver and Toronto are alleged to have used a mix of diplomatic pressure and coercion to compel Indians living in Canada to spy on the Sikh community.

Canadian officials have long known of India’s efforts to threaten and coerce diaspora population. And given Delhi’s mounting frustration with Ottawa’s refusal to crack down on pro-Khalistan groups, officials suspected vocal figures like Nijjar were targets for intimidation.

“People in the Sikh community, who have lived experiences of violence and intimidation in the Punjab, are aware of these patterns and can read and understand them quickly,” said Grewal. “More quickly, perhaps, than our law enforcement and intelligence officers.”

Related: ‘Police said I’m in danger’: Sikh activists on edge worldwide after Vancouver killing

This week Trudeau said his government acted “to disrupt the chain of operations that go from Indian diplomats here in Canada to criminal organizations, to direct violent impacts on Canadians right across this country”.

Canadian police have arrested at least eight people, including three believed to have killed Nijjar, in connection with homicide cases and nearly two dozen in connection with extortion investigations.

On Friday, Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, warned the country would “not sit quietly as agents of any country are linked to efforts to threaten, harass or even to kill Canadians”.

RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme said police had uncovered “well over a dozen credible and imminent threats to life” leading police to issue “duty to warn” notices, including to the brother-in-law of New Democratic party leader Jagmeet Singh.

The Guardian has spoken with four people who have received such warnings, all of whom describe tightlipped police operating on “credible” evidence of possible attempts on their lives.

Inderjeet Singh Gosal, a close friend of Nijjar, received a panicked call form his wife while he was traveling: police were at their house, with a message that his life was in danger.

Gosal, who took over efforts to hold a global, non-binding referendum as part of an effort to create the Sikh homeland of Khalistan after his “brother” Nijjar was killed last year, says there is little doubt India is behind the threats.

“When I stepped into this role and over this activism, I knew there was a moment when they’d come after me,” he said. “It’s never going to stop. But this is what I signed up for. I’m not afraid of death at all.”

Months earlier, a property owned by Gosal was struck with a bullet, which he took as a warning sign.

When US prosecutors revealed on Thursday that they had charged a former Indian intelligence officer for co-ordinating a foiled murder-for-hire plot targeting a prominent Sikh activist in New York, the unsealed indictment laid out in black and white the extent to which Indian officials were allegedly involved in the scheme.

“But for Sikhs here, we know what India is capable of: we’ve seen it for years,” said Gosal. “We have no illusions. We know they have vast resources and no mercy.”

Sikhs call for India's consulates to be closed in Canada

Updated Fri, October 18, 2024



STORY: :: October 18, 2024

:: Toronto, Canada

:: Sikh protesters call for India's consulates to be closed in Canada

:: Ottawa accuses New Delhi of involvement in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader last year

Kuljeet Singh, Spokesperson, Sikhs for Justice

"We believe India remains a threat to Canada's sovereignty, Canada's freedom of speech and Canada's freedom of expression. They will remain a threat to all Canadian citizens, and we will not stop until these consulates are removed permanently."

"This is not a diplomatic tit-for-tat. This is a tyrant dictatorship trying to impose its values on a democratic, peaceful nation such as Canada."

Kuljeet Singh, a spokesperson for Sikhs for Justice, called on Canada to shut the country’s Indian consulates down.

"We believe India remains a threat to Canada's sovereignty, Canada's freedom of speech and Canada's freedom of expression," Singh said.

A protester, Bisman Dhillon, said "This is not a diplomatic tit-for-tat. This is a tyrant dictatorship trying to impose its values on a democratic, peaceful nation such as Canada."

Canada's Sikhs have been in the spotlight since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last year accused India's government of involvement in the June 18, 2023, murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader in Canada and Moninder Singh's friend, who was shot in Surrey.

India's government has denied involvement in the killing of Nijjar. India has accused Canada of providing a safe haven for Sikh separatists.

Canada said on Monday it expelled six Indian diplomats, linking them to Nijjar's murder and alleging a broader effort to target Indian dissidents in Canada through killings, extortion, use of organized crime and clandestine information-gathering. India retaliated by ordering the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats and called the allegations preposterous and politically motivated.

Trudeau has wrecked Canada-India political relations, says expelled envoy
Reuters
Sun, October 20, 2024 

High Commissioner of India to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma gestures during an interview in Ottawa

OTTAWA (Reuters) - India's envoy to Canada, who is being expelled over what Ottawa says are links to the murder of a Sikh leader, insisted in an interview he was innocent and said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had wrecked bilateral political ties.

Both countries on Monday ordered out six diplomats in tit-for-tat moves over Ottawa's allegations that New Delhi was targeting Indian dissidents on Canadian soil.

Trudeau specifically tied the six to the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year in British Columbia. Sanjay Kumar Verma, India's envoy to Canada, told CTV that Trudeau had been relying on intelligence rather than evidence.


"On the basis of intelligence, if you want to destroy a relationship, be my guest. And that's what he did," Verma said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Asked whether he had had anything to with Nijjar's murder, Verma said: "Nothing at all. No evidence was presented. (This is) politically motivated."

Canada is home to the highest population of Sikhs outside their home state of Punjab and demonstrations in favor of a separate homeland carved out of India have irked New Delhi.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Allegations suggest India is now part of the assassination club

Hannah Ellis-Petersen South Asia correspondent
Sat, October 19, 2024 a

Canada's PM, Justin Trudeau, at a press conference about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's investigation into ‘violent criminal activity in Canada with connections to India’ on Monday.Photograph: Blair Gable/Reuters

A gruelling week for Indian diplomacy began with an explosive Canadian press conference on Monday. Senior Canadian police officials accused Indian diplomats of being involved in “criminal” activities on Canadian soil, ranging from homicide and targeted assassinations to extortion, intimidation and coercion against members of the Canadian Sikh community.

They alleged that Indian diplomats – including the high commissioner himself – were implicated not only in the high profile killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh activist who was gunned down outside a gurdwara in a suburb of Vancouver last June, but also linked to other murders on Canadian soil. The diplomats had even worked with a gang run by India’s most notorious mob boss to get their dirty work done, they alleged.

Two days later, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau doubled down on the claims. Testifying before a public inquiry, he said Canada had clear intelligence linking Indian diplomats to “drive-by shootings, home invasions, violent extortion and even murder in and across Canada”. India, added Trudeau, had made a “horrific mistake” in violating Canadian sovereignty.

It was a considerable escalation of a diplomatic row that has torpedoed India-Canada relations, beginning last year when Trudeau stood up in parliament and said there were “credible allegations” linking the Indian government to the killing of Nijjar – an accusation India rejected as “absurd”.

Since then, allegations of an India campaign of transnational violence and harassment have emerged not only in Canada but in the US, UK and Pakistan, where prominent Sikh activists say they have received threats to their lives.

Western officials and the Sikh community claim that what has been laid bare is a far-reaching – if often clumsily implemented – policy of transnational repression targeting the Sikh diaspora by the government of prime minister Narendra Modi. Canadian officials reportedly say they have evidence that orders of alleged threats and harassment came from the very top levels of Indian government, right up to the powerful home minister Amit Shah, who is considered Modi’s right hand man.

India has repeatedly rejected all the allegations, emphasising that such killing are not government policy , and Canada’s latest allegations were met with a flurry of outraged denials. New Delhi described the claims as “preposterous imputations” and “ludicrous” statements, and accused Trudeau of a political vendetta. They have also accused Canada of providing a safe haven to Sikh terrorists.

But by Friday morning, India had woken to fresh allegations, this time from the US. An “Indian government employee”, named as Vikash Yadav, was being charged over a plot to murder a prominent Sikh activist and US citizen, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, in New York last year. At the time the murder was planned, Yadav was working as an intelligence official under the office of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and had been a longtime employee of the Indian government.

The new indictment added further details to the alleged assassination plot against Pannun, initially revealed by US department of justice prosecutors late last year.

In what read like the script of a B movie, US investigators alleged that an Indian agent in New Delhi – previously referred to just as CC1 but now revealed as Yadav – had hired an Indian middleman in New York to help orchestrate a plot to murder Pannun. Panuun, a lawyer and US citizen, is a known fireband Sikh separatist and has been designated as a terrorist by the India government.

However, it is alleged the plot was foiled after the assassin Yadav and his middleman recruited to kill Pannun awkwardly turned out to be an undercover US officer. The suspected middleman, named as Nikhil Gupta, fled to the Czech Republic, where he was arrested and later deported back to the US, where he has entered a not guilty plea. On Friday, the FBI released a wanted notice for Yadav and it believed the US will seek his extradition from India, where he is still believed to be “at large”.

India has sought to portray the Indian and Canadian incidents as unconnected but, according to US investigators, they are inextricably linked. As the Pannun murder plot was being planned out, Gupta had mentioned a “big target” in Canada, just days before Nijjar was gunned down, it is claimed. Then, hours after Nijjar’s death, Yadav allegedly sent his middleman a video clip of Nijjar’s dead body.

The justice department made it clear they believed Pannun’s killing was “a grave example” of an increasing trend of transnational repression – a term defined as foreign governments taking violent and illegal actions beyond their own territory. Without directly mentioning the geopolitical implications evidently at play, they also emphasised that they would hold those responsible to account “regardless of their position or proximity to power”.

India is now scrambling to reject allegations that it has become a rogue international actor that has illegally violated the sovereign territory of not one but two of its western allies. Not long ago, such killings were never considered part of India’s intelligence playbook. But since he came to power a decade ago, Modi’s muscular nationalist agenda has come to define his agenda both at home and abroad, as he seeks to push India to superpower status.

Related: Indian government ordered killings in Pakistan, intelligence officials claim

In a previous Guardian investigation, which linked India to up to 20 killings over the border in Pakistan since 2020, intelligence officials described how the Modi government had become emboldened to carry out attacks on dissidents on foreign soil. They said Israel’s notorious spy agency the Mossad and the assassination of the Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in the Saudi embassy in 2018 had been directly cited as examples to follow.

“What the Saudis did was very effective,” an intelligence officer told the Guardian earlier this year. “You not only get rid of your enemy but send a chilling message, a warning to the people working against you. Every intelligence agency has been doing this. Our country cannot be strong without exerting power over our enemies.” Officially, the Indian government has repeatedly denied this is their policy.

In both Canada and the US, the allegations have yet to be proved in a court of law, and Canada has yet to press charges against any Indian government officials, simply naming them as “persons of interest” in the case.

But any authentication of the allegation would confirm there has been a radical reimagining of the role of Indian foreign intelligence agencies under the Modi government. It indicates that Modi’s longstanding domestic suppression of dissent – targeting everyone from opposition politicians to activists and even NGOs – has now transcended international borders, particularly to target Sikhs associated with the separatist Khalistan movement, which is far more prevalent among the diaspora.

There has been a markedly sharp contrast in how India has responded to both cases, which observers say is symptomatic of differing geopolitical agendas. In the case of Canada, where India has bullishly maintained there is no evidence, analysts say relations have sunk so low that India has little to lose by refusing to co-operate with the investigation.

However, India can ill-afford to make a similar enemy of Washington. In the wake of the Pannun indictment, they set up a high level inquiry in to the US allegations, which travelled to Washington this week. India’s foreign ministry also confirmed that Yadav is no longer a government employee.

So far, the White House has sought to tread a similarly careful diplomatic line, in an apparent bid not to alienate India who is an important strategic and economic ally. But in its indictment, the justice department made it clear that it would not let geopolitics interfere in the pursuit of the case.

“To the governments around the world who may be considering such criminal activity and to the communities they would target,” said attorney general Matthew G. Olsen, “let there be no doubt that the Department of Justice is committed to disrupting and exposing these plots.”

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THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU | Jack London, Robert L. Fish

New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963. 1st Edition. Inscribed by Robert L. Fish. THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU was completed after the death of Jack London by mystery ...

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The Assassination Bureau, Ltd. Jack London, Robert L. Fish Penguin, Oct 1, 1994 - Fiction - 208 pages London’s suspense thriller focuses on the fine distinction between state- justified murder and criminal violence in the Assassination Bureau—an organization whose mandate is to rid the state of all its enemies. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

IT'S A BLUE WAVE A COMIN'

Opinion: Trump's MAGA base might want to brace themselves – Harris could win

Rex Huppke, USA TODAY
Sun, October 20, 2024 


Despite all the faux clairvoyance of pollsters and political pundits and the endless babble from social media Nostradamuses, there isn’t a soul in this country who can look at next month’s presidential election and accurately guess which way the mop will flop.

But what I hear from the chattering class on both sides of the political aisle is predominantly: Liberals, you better brace yourselves for the possibility that Donald Trump might win.

That’s technically fair. There’s a solid chance Trump will win, and even if there weren’t, folks on the left are still too traumatized from his surprise 2016 presidential victory to ever again feel confident he’ll lose.

Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump looks on as he participates in a town hall presented by Spanish-language network Univision, in Doral, Florida, on Oct. 16, 2024.
MAGA folks may want to start considering the fact that Trump could lose

But what about the other side? What about all the MAGA fans whose world revolves around Trump, the ones who attend the rallies and proudly wear the red hats, wave Trump flags and believe he’s infallible?

They should begin to reckon with something few are saying out loud: Kamala Harris might win this election.

That’s right, I just wrote the words most liberals dare not utter.

It’s not a prediction, but it’s at least as much a possibility as saying Trump might win.
Liberals are prepping for a Trump win. Shouldn't MAGA fans be ready for a Harris victory?

Flags supporting Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump blow in the wind as they are on sale by a roadside vendor in Fallbrook, California, U.S., August 27, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Nobody on Fox News or in the right-wing blab-o-sphere is preparing Trump supporters for the possibility of defeat. I suppose that’s hard, given that most still believe the ludicrous fiction that he won the 2020 election.

But still, if the MAGA crowd wants to avoid another Jan. 6, 2021, – and all the incarceration that would go with it – and not spend the next however many years whining about a stolen election, they might consider wrapping their minds around the idea of a President Kamala Harris.

Opinion: Vance's refusal to admit Trump lost 2020 election shows he's an opportunistic clown

Before President Joe Biden stepped aside, around the time of the Republican National Convention, Trump’s campaign took on an air of inevitability, with polls moving in his direction following Biden’s disastrous debate performance.

But no sensible person can say that aura of dominance has held. Polls are largely worthless, but Harris is up in them by about the same average amount Trump was leading Biden back when folks were talking about a crushing Trump victory.
Trump's campaign just wrapped up another terrible, embarrassing week

It’s hard to look at how the two candidates are performing right now and not objectively see the vice president having an advantage.

Here are some Trump lowlights from the past week:

On Monday night in Pennsylvania, Trump was supposed to hold a Q&A with voters but wound up standing on stage and bizarrely swaying to an assortment of songs played over the loudspeaker for about 40 minutes. It was a profoundly weird WTF moment and again raised the question of his mental acuity.

U.S. Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump dances during a campaign rally at Findlay Toyota Center on October 13, 2024 in Prescott Valley, Arizona.

On Tuesday, Trump demeaned autoworkers during an interview at the Economic Club of Chicago, saying children could do their jobs.

That night, he taped a Fox News town hall in which he again described Democrats as the “enemy from within,” saying “they’re so sick, and they’re so evil.”

Opinion: Harris did with Fox News what Trump can't do anywhere: Handle tough questions

At that same town hall, which aired the next day, Trump mocked the family of a young Georgia woman whose death has been linked to the state’s draconian abortion ban.
Jan. 6 was a 'day of love'? C'mon, man.

On Wednesday, he held a town hall with Latino voters on Univision. The biggest takeaway was a moment when Trump told one man that the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was “a day of love,” leaving the man with a look of disbelief and dismay that made the exchange go viral.

On Thursday night, he spoke at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York City, a Catholic fundraiser. As The New York Times reported: “He made raunchy jokes about adultery and menstruation and swore while standing feet from a cardinal. He praised Rush Limbaugh and talked about ‘the China Virus,’ and the ‘Democrat party’ and he emphasized Barack Obama’s middle name (Hussein).”

New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump and Melania Trump attend the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York City, U.S. October 17, 2024.

On Friday, Trump went to the friendly confines of a Fox News studio and said that as president, he would close the Department of Education and withhold federal funds from any school districts that have a curriculum he doesn’t agree with.
Trump too 'exhausted' to keep up with interviews?

By the end of the week, in the wake of Trump canceling a number of planned interviews while also refusing another debate with Harris, news outlets were reporting that he was exhausted, giving her a perfect opportunity to highlight his advanced age: 78.

"I've been hearing reports that his team at least is saying he's suffering from exhaustion,” Harris said Friday. “And that’s apparently the excuse for why he’s not doing interviews and of course he’s not doing the CNN town hall. He refuses to do another debate. ... Being president of the United States is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world and so we really do need to ask if he's exhausted being on the campaign trail, is he fit to do the job?”

Vice President Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris poses for a photo with a supporter after speaking at University Wisconsin-La Crosse during a campaign event in La Crosse, Wis., on Oct. 17, 2024.

Trump’s increasingly xenophobic and rambling rhetoric stands in stark contrast to the focused and positive campaign Harris has been running. She’s drawing large, enthusiastic crowds while showcasing a wide array of prominent Republicans who are backing her.

She successfully handled a wildly combative interview Wednesday with Fox News host Bret Baier, highlighting her desire to reach people outside the Democratic base.
This election could go either way. Both sides should be ready.

So does this mean Harris will win? Absolutely not. It means she could win, and many would rather be in her position in this race than in Trump’s.

So, to all the residents of MAGA world, liberals like me have been hearing “Trump might win the presidency” over and over again, a warning to prepare us for that eventuality. It’s high time you all consider the opposite, and gird your loins for this reasonable possibility: Harris might win the presidency.

That’s not me being overconfident. It’s me stating a fact.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Why is nobody telling MAGA fans Trump might lose?

Montana GOP Senate Hopeful Accused Firefighters Of 'Milking' Infernos For Extra

 Pay
Chris D'Angelo
Updated Sat, October 19, 2024 


Tim Sheehy, an ex-Navy SEAL and pro-Donald Trump conservative, is running against incumbent Democratic Montana Sen. Jon Tester. It is among the most contested races of the 2024 election. Tim Sheehy for Montana

Montana GOP Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy, who made his fortune as the founder and CEO of an aerial firefighting company that has relied largely on lucrative federal contracts, has repeatedly accused wildland firefighters of dragging their feet to put out blazes and “milking” disasters for overtime pay, a HuffPost review of his recent statements found.

In his 2023 book “Mudslingers: A True Story of Aerial Firefighting,” Sheehy described a discussion he had with fellow firefighters during a series of blazes in Idaho in 2015.

“I was hanging out at the base, shooting the breeze with some other guys, talking about how intense the fires seemed to be, just trying to make conversation and contribute to the cause,” Sheehy wrote. “‘Hopefully we can hammer this thing down quickly and get it under control,’ I said. Most of the other guys nodded solemnly, but one person, a pilot, kind of straightened up and grunted. ‘Well, we don’t want it to go too fast,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot of overtime pay to be earned out there! We put it out, it’s back on salary!’”

That conversation led Sheehy — an ex-Navy SEAL who founded a Bozeman, Montana-based firefighting company called Bridger Aerospace in 2014 — to confront what he described as a “troubling undercurrent of complacency, of embracing or at least accepting the status quo because, frankly, there was so much money at stake.”

“I’ve since come to realize that this is not a feeling shared universally, but it does exist, and to deny its existence is to impede the efforts of those who understand the importance of change,” he wrote.

At the time of that 2015 encounter, Sheehy was still working to get Bridger Aerospace, a startup with a focus on using infrared cameras and other surveillance technology to monitor fires, off the ground.

While Sheehy would go on to make millions from the same pot of federal money that wildland firefighters rely on, his writings and more recent public comments suggest he came to view many in the field as bad actors competing for and ultimately wasting the government’s limited resources.

The 2015 conversation “smacked less of concern or common sense than it did laziness — or, worse, greed,” he wrote in his book. “I wouldn’t call it malevolence; anyone who climbs into a plane or picks up a shovel to fight wildfires clearly has a capacity for goodness and a desire to help. That said, even in positions that are demonstrably service-oriented, there is the potential for self-interest, if not outright corruption, leading to a response that is not necessarily in the public’s best interest.”

″If there is no fire, there is no money,” he added. “And the faster that a fire is extinguished, the sooner the money dries up or goes elsewhere. It might seem ridiculous to worry about a shortage of work to keep the wildfire industry busy given the extraordinary expansion of the season in recent years, not to mention the gnawing sense that firefighters will forever be overmatched against nature. But old beliefs and protocols die hard, and clearly there were some in the industry who saw nothing wrong with milking every fire for what it was worth despite the risks and the blurring of ethical boundaries.”

Sheehy echoed that same sentiment during a book signing in Huntsville, Alabama in March, months after he launched his bid against three-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. He told the crowd that his company’s use of technology to fight fires more quickly and effectively was “not received well” within the broader industry.

“There’s a very real dynamic in wildfire that a lot of those people don’t want to put the fire out,” he said at the event, according to a recording obtained by HuffPost. “It’s called ‘let it burn.’ And they don’t want to put the fire out because that’s where they get their overtime, that’s where they get their hazard pay. And for a lot of these folks out there — I don’t mean to cast them in a negative light, but it’s just a fact — they don’t want that fire to be put out, because ... they make half their annual income on hazard overtime pay during the summer fires.”

Sheehy speaks at a rally supporting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Bozeman, Montana, on August 9, 2024. NATALIE BEHRING via Getty Images

Since the early 1970s, the U.S. Forest Service has increasingly allowed certain wildfires, usually those that start naturally in remote areas, to continue burning — not so that firefighters could rake in overtime pay, but in hopes of slowly reversing the devastating impacts of decades of aggressive fire suppression, which has left many forests overloaded with fuel and more prone to extreme infernos.

Scientists have come to understand the critical role fire plays in many forest ecosystems, from clearing away dead vegetation to controlling invasive species. But the Forest Service disputes that it has ever had a “let it burn” policy. And the vast majority of fires — roughly 98% — are still suppressed before they consume 100 acres.

In his book, Sheehy does dive into the complex set of factors driving increasingly catastrophic wildfires, including climate change and the nation’s long history of racing to extinguish every fire as quickly as possible. He describes fire suppression as a “double-edged sword” and notes that “putting every single fire out immediately all the time isn’t the answer.” And he sympathizes with wildland fire crews, describing them as “highly motivated and skilled individuals who make little more than minimum wage and usually have a passion for both the work and the lifestyle.”

But aside from that single comment from an unnamed wildland firefighting pilot in 2015, he offers nothing to back up his claim that a significant number of firefighters are standing around watching fires burn for personal financial gain.

Sheehy’s campaign did not respond to any of HuffPost’s questions about his portrayal of wildland firefighters. Instead, in a short email statement, campaign spokesperson Katie Martin touted Sheehy’s military and business credentials and condemned HuffPost’s reporting on the GOP candidate as “embarrassing.”

Ben McLane is a captain of a Forest Service fire crew and a board member of Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, a nonprofit that advocates for federal firefighters. He told HuffPost he “respects the heck out of” aerial firefighters and applauded Sheehy for starting a company that provides an essential service to communities threatened by fire, but condemned Sheehy’s statements about wildland firefighters as “fundamentally flawed.”

“I’ve never seen firefighters let something burn for the sake of keeping the good times going and for monetary reasons,” McLane told HuffPost. “You’ve got to take into account all you’re sacrificing to be out there.”

“For him to basically accuse firefighters of retreating intentionally — these same people who represent the kind of patriotic attributes in action that he claims to represent in words — is a contradiction that is just hard for me to fathom,” he added.

Sheehy resigned as CEO of Bridger Aerospace in July to focus on his Senate bid. Polls show Sheehy leading Tester in the race, which many say could ultimately decide which party controls the Senate next year.

As HuffPost previously reported, Sheehy was once outspoken about the need to combat global climate change and supported major climate initiatives. But since launching his campaign, Sheehy has repeatedly railed against what he calls the “climate cult” and the “disastrous socialist Green New Deal.”

Meanwhile, in public documents, Bridger Aerospace has made clear-eyed assessments of the effects of worsening climate change. In its most recent annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bridger wrote that the “consequences of these climate-driven events may vary widely and could include increased stress on our services due to new patterns of demand, physical damage to our fleet and infrastructure, higher operational costs and an increase in the number [of] requests for our services.”

Fossil fuel-driven climate change, misguided fire suppression policies and increased development in forested areas have triggered an an era of megafires that pose a growing threat to many communities. Yet the wildland firefighters on the front lines of this emergency remain woefully underpaid, earning a base salary of just $15 per hour while facing extreme physical and mental health risks, as ProPublica recently reported. The surge in overtime pay among wildland firefighters is largely due to a shortage of people willing to do this dangerous job, and for many firefighters, overtime pay is the only way to make a living wage.

“A lot of the work of Grassroots has been advocating for a livable wage for firefighters, which we still have not attained,” McLane said. “I don’t think it’s greedy to identify pathways to balance your call to service and adventure with the need to feed your family and wanting to be out on assignment to do that.”

He noted that a bill to hike wildland firefighters’ wages has stalled in Congress. If lawmakers decide to move the bill, “that will be a great day, because no longer will we have to face that moral conflict,” he said.

One of Bridger Aerospace's aircraft, known as a "super scooper," battles the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon Fires in the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico in April 2022. via Associated Press

Sheehy is not the first Montana Republican to accuse wildland firefighters of being lazy and mismanaging infernos.

In July 2006, then-GOP Sen. Conrad Burns famously accosted a crew of highly trained wildland firefighters, known as hotshots, that were in the state to help battle a large fire near the town of Worden. At the Billings, Montana airport, Burns accused the crew of doing a ”piss-poor job” fighting the blaze.

According to a state official’s report of the incident, Burns pointed at one particular firefighter and said, “See that guy over there? He hasn’t done a God-damned thing. … You probably paid that guy $10,000 to sit around. It’s gotta change.”

The state official noted in her report that she “offered to the senator that our firefighters make around $8-$12 per hour and time-and-a-half for overtime. He seemed a little surprised that it wasn’t higher.″

Burns later apologized for his outburst, saying he should have “chosen my words more carefully” and that his criticism “should not have been directed at those who were working hard to put [the fire] out.” A few months later, Tester narrowly defeated Burns, a three-term incumbent.

On the 2-year anniversary of Burns’ attack on wildland firefighters, Wildfire Today, a publication of Missoula, Montana-based nonprofit International Association of Wildland Fire, summarized the incident like this:

“Burns was up for re-election, running against Democrat Jon Tester. Soon, 1,000 ‘Wildland Firefighters for Tester’ bumper stickers appeared. Tester won by about 2000 votes, and the leading political columnist for the Lee Newspaper chain credited the ‘firefighter flap.’ The Democrats took control of the U.S. Senate by a margin of one.”

Montana GOP candidate who could flip control of Senate nagged by claims he lied about bullet wound

MATTHEW BROWN
Updated Sun, October 20, 2024

- Tim Sheehy speaking during the second day of the Republican National Convention, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)


BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A former Park Service ranger said Friday that U.S. Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy of Montana has been lying about a bullet wound that the candidate said came from fighting in Afghanistan — going public with an accusation that has nagged the Republican’s campaign for months.

The claim from former ranger Kim Peach that Sheehy in fact shot himself on a family trip in Montana was immediately dismissed by Sheehy and his allies as a smear campaign engineered by Democrats in a race that's expected to help decide control of the Senate.

But with the election less than three weeks away, it adds to the huge pressures that the political newcomer already faced as he challenges three-term Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester.


Sheehy is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and his military record is a centerpiece of his bid for office. During stump speeches and in a book published by Sheehy last year, he recounts being wounded on multiple occasions during combat, including in the arm in 2012.

Sheehy was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds sustained in a separate combat incident and was also awarded a Bronze Star.

A Sheehy campaign spokesperson said Peach was a partisan Democrat pushing a “defamatory story.”

“Anyone trying to take away from the fact that Tim Sheehy signed up for war as a young man and spent most of his 20s in some of the most dangerous places in the world is either a partisan hack, a journalist with an agenda, or outright a disgusting person,” spokesperson Katie Martin said.

He’s faced scrutiny over the arm wound since April, when The Washington Post quoted a Glacier National Park ranger anonymously saying Sheehy accidentally shot himself in 2015, when he was travelling with his family and his gun fell out of a vehicle and fired when it hit the ground in a parking lot on Logan Pass. The ranger who was quoted in the story was Peach.

Sheehy was ticketed and paid a $525 fine for illegally discharging a firearm in Glacier, government records show.

The Republican candidate said in response to the April story that he lied to the park ranger — not about being wounded in Afghanistan.

Sheehy said he fell while hiking at Glacier and injured his arm, then concocted the story about the bullet wound to cover up the fact that the 2012 incident may have been friendly fire. He said he didn’t want members of his SEAL unit in Afghanistan to suffer any consequences.

With absentee voting in Montana underway and Sheehy poised for potential victory, Peach, a Democrat, said Friday that he “couldn’t let him get way with something like that without the truth being told.”

Peach said he interviewed Sheehy at the hospital where he was treated for the bullet wound and briefly confiscated the gun. Before returning it, Peach said he unloaded the weapon and found five live rounds and one that had been fired.

“At the time, he was obviously embarrassed about it. And you know, he admitted to what I was there for — the gun going off in the park," Peach told The Associated Press. “He knows the truth and the truth isn't complicated. It's when you start lying things get complicated.”

His decision to go public was reported earlier by the Post.

Attorneys for Sheehy's campaign said Peach’s recent statements differ from the facts in a declaration submitted by the ranger after interviewing Sheehy in 2015.

The declaration made no mention of Peach examining the gun and finding only five live rounds, the attorneys wrote in a letter provided by the campaign. There was no gunshot residue on Sheehy when he went to the hospital, nor any gunshots reported in Glacier that day, the attorneys said.

"There is no physical evidence suggesting that Mr. Sheehy discharged his firearm at Glacier National Park. Because it didn’t happen," attorneys Daniel Watkins and Dustin Pusch wrote.

Peach worked as a park ranger for more than three decades and is now retired. He lives in small town near Glacier. He's posted a photo of himself on social media wearing a “Make Lying Wrong Again” hat and said he votes for Democrats.

He denied any connection with the Tester campaign or other Democratic organizations.

A recent Tester campaign ad criticizes Sheehy for lying about the gunshot wound. A campaign spokesperson did not have an immediate comment Friday.

The Montana Democratic Party seized on Peach’s latest comments as providing a “firsthand account” of what happened to Sheehy.

But Mike Berg, communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, rejected the latest reiteration of the accusations against Sheehy. He suggested it's a sign of Democrats' desperation because they fear Tester will lose.

“It's the last gasp of a career politician who sees his career about to end,” Berg said.

___

This story was first published on Oct. 18, 2024. It was updated on Oct. 20, 2024 to correct the message on the hat of former ranger Kim Peach. It said “Make Lying Wrong Again,” not “Make America Wrong Again.”


New Doubts Emerge Over GOP Senate Candidate’s Gun Wound War Story

William Vaillancourt
Fri, October 18, 2024 

Jim Urquhart


Tim Sheehy, the former Navy SEAL and Purple Heart recipient running as the Republican candidate against incumbent Montana Sen. Jon Tester, has long told voters that a gun wound in his right forearm occurred when he was serving in Afghanistan.

However, following a Washington Post report in April alleging that the wound was accidentally self-inflicted, a New York Times investigation Friday has made the story appear even more dubious.

Earlier this year, the Post reported that in October 2015—three years after Sheehy‘s deployment had ended—he told police that he had mistakenly shot himself in the arm after a hike at Montana‘s Glacier National Park—and that that was the reason for the bullet in his arm.

A park ranger who talked with Sheehy in the hospital in 2015 told the Times on the record that Sheehy told him he had accidentally shot himself.

“I am 100 percent sure he shot himself that day,” Kim Peach told the paper. Peach, who affirmed his incident report, also said he temporarily confiscated and unloaded Sheehy’s revolver, finding five live rounds and one casing.

Sheehy and his lawyers have since argued he lied to Peach in order to protect his former platoon mates, claiming the bullet in his arm may have been a result of friendly fire. They say Sheehy actually slipped and fell while hiking, aggravating the pre-existing wound.

“Mr. Sheehy‘s account is the only plausible one,” the Trump-endorsed candidate’s lawyers claimed.

Peach, speaking to the Post, had condemned Sheehy for how he criticized those questioning what happened in Afghanistan.

“He said that questioning his military service was ‘disgusting,’” Peach said. “What is disgusting is saying a wound from a negligent, accidental firearm discharge is a wound received in combat.”

Another new account that runs contrary to Sheehy’s comes from Dave Madden, a former SEAL colleague.

Madden told the Times that Sheehy had never mentioned a gunshot wound to him, adding that it would have very likely come up during their time together overseas—or in conversations when the two reconnected months later and shared war stories, he said.

Madden explained that he has come forward publicly because believes Sheehy is making up the tale.

“It seems obvious to me and every other operator I’ve talked to about this,” he told the Times.

Madden said that he didn‘t understand why Sheehy would have been trying to hide a friendly fire wound—such a ricochet injury is considered a typical battle hazard, he said, adding that he believed no one would have investigated the source of the bullet.

Two other former SEALS who spoke with the Times said they had heard about Sheehy being injured in Afghanistan, but didn‘t recall anything about a gunshot wound specifically. One of them, Justin Sheehan, recalled discussing Sheehy’s injuries as from an improvised explosive device (IED).

Another said he remembered Sheehy talking about an IED blast and having been struck by friendly fire.

Sheehy‘s lawyers accused Madden, a registered Democrat, of acting out of a political desire to harm Sheehy’s standing in his Senate race. Sheehy currently leads Tester by 8 percentage points, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll.

The Daily Beast.

Annapolis Royal elects all-women council, mayor

Founded in 1605, Annapolis Royal is no stranger to 'firsts' in municipal elections. For example, it elected Daurene Lewis as Canada's first Black woman mayor in 1984.

CBC
Sun, October 20, 2024 

Annapolis Royal has its all-women council and mayor after Saturday's municipal election. (Robert Short/CBC - image credit)

Annapolis Royal, N.S., has elected an all-women council and mayor for the first time in its history.

Founded in 1605, Annapolis Royal is no stranger to 'firsts' in municipal elections. For example, it elected Daurene Lewis as Canada's first Black woman mayor in 1984.

Newly elected councillor Adele MacDonald says she is happy to be part of another historic first.


"I think it's just going to be another kind of historic moment for a very historic community," said MacDonald, who moved there with her husband in 2012.

Lynn Myers, Heather Sadkowski and Sybil Skinner Robertson were also elected councillors. Mayor Amery Boyer was re-elected. The town has just over 500 voters.

Gender disparity in local politics

Historically, women have been underrepresented in municipal politics compared to men.

According to a 2023 report by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, women represented 31 per cent of all municipal elected representatives in the country.

In Nova Scotia, fewer than a third of candidates running for a contested district were women during the last elections, which was a slight two per cent increase from the 2016 municipal elections.

Boyer said the women in this new council were elected for more than their gender.

"I honestly believe that people voted according to how they felt people would perform," Boyer said. "And it's not a surprise to me that certain of them got noticed because they were very active in the community."

'Fresh ideas'

In the past, the town has had all-men councils. When Boyer began in 2002 it was a 50/50 split.

She said "it's lovely" to get to work with the new councillors.

"It'll be interesting as we're bringing fresh eyes," she said. "It's nice to see the next generation step up. They'll have fresh ideas, a new way to look at things."

B.C. wakes to election uncertainty, with Conservatives, NDP in tight race
Chuck Chiang
Sun, October 20, 2024 


VANCOUVER — British Columbia woke up Sunday to a reshaped political landscape but no clear winner of a provincial election marked by the rise of the B.C. Conservatives from the political fringe to centre stage.

Neither the Conservatives, led by John Rustad, nor the incumbent NDP of Premier David Eby reached the 47 seats needed to form a majority government after initial counting ended on election night, with a handful of seats undecided.

Elections BC said counting was set to resume Sunday morning.


But regardless of the outcome, the election represented a stunning moment for the B.C. Conservatives, who received less than two per cent of the vote last election.

They are now elected or leading in 45 ridings, the NDP was elected or leading in 46, while the BC Greens won two seats in the legislature.

"This is what happens when you stand on values," a triumphant Rustad told supporters in Vancouver late Saturday.

"If we are in that situation of the NDP forming a minority government, we will look at every single opportunity from day one to bring them down … and get back to the polls."

Eby said in a muted speech that a "clear majority" of voters supported "progressive values."

But he acknowledged that Rustad "spoke to the frustrations of a lot of British Columbians" when it came to costs of living and public safety.

"We've got to do better," Eby told supporters. "That was our commitment to British Columbians. We've got to do better, and we will do better."

He said he was committed to working with Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, whose party could hold the balance of power.

What happens next hinges on nine seats that were undecided when election-night counting ended, in particular Surrey City Centre and Juan de Fuca-Malahat, where the NDP was ahead by fewer than 100 votes.

If the Conservatives flip the lead in both of them, and hang onto the others where they lead, they will win with a one-seat majority in the 93-riding legislature.

If not, and assuming the NDP is unable to pass the Conservatives in any other undecided races, Westminster tradition means the incumbent party gets the first opportunity to try to form a minority government — in this case, the NDP, with the help of the Greens.

But the final outcome may not be confirmed for about a week.

Elections BC said automatic recounts would take place on Oct. 26 to 28 in districts where the margin was 100 votes or fewer after the initial count ends.

The election agency said more than 99.7 per cent of votes were counted on election night, but ballots cast by voters outside their district were still to be tallied, while "election official availability and weather-related disruptions" delayed some preliminary results.

Furstenau lost her seat but said her party was nevertheless poised to play a "pivotal role" in the legislature.

The Green victories went to Rob Botterell in Saanich North and the Islands and Jeremy Valeriote in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky.

Furstenau lost to the NDP's Grace Lore after switching ridings to Victoria-Beacon Hill, but said she was "so excited" for her two colleagues, calling their wins "incredible."

"This is a passing of the torch and I am going to be there to mentor and guide and lead in any way that I can," she told her supporters in Victoria.

Botterell, a retired lawyer, said it was an “exciting day” for him and he was “honoured” for the opportunity to serve his constituents.

"Tonight's a night for celebration," he said. "There will be lots of discussion over the upcoming weeks, but I am totally supportive of Sonia and I'm going do everything I can to support her and the path forward that she chooses to take because that's her decision."

Rustad said his party had "not given up this fight" to form government.

"I am optimistic that people in this province are hungry for that change."

Royal Roads professor David Black said the Greens retaining official party status by winning two seats could give them “some real bargaining power” in what is shaping up to be a very tight legislature.

“The Greens are going to be the kingmakers here whatever happens, if the race is as close as it is right now between two larger parties,” he said in an interview on election night.

B.C. Conservatives president Aisha Estey called her party's showing "the ultimate underdog story" and relished what she called a "historic campaign."

"Whether it's government tonight or official opposition, we're not going anywhere. There's a Conservative Party in B.C. now finally," she said. "We're back."

Rustad's unlikely rise came after he was thrown out of the Opposition, then known as the BC Liberals, joined the Conservatives as leader, and steered them to a level of popularity that led to the collapse of his old party, now called BC United — all in just two years.

Outgoing New Democrat MLA George Heyman, who did not run for re-election, said it was always "going to be a tight election."

"It's reminiscent of 2017," Heyman said, referring to the last B.C. election where no party reached majority. "The message is clear, people have been struggling. They're having a hard time."

The B.C. Conservatives set to enter the legislature include Brent Chapman in Surrey South, who had been heavily criticized during the campaign for an old social media post in which he called Palestinian children "inbred" and "time bombs."

A group of former BC United MLAs running as Independents were all defeated, with Karin Kirkpatrick, Dan Davies, Coralee Oakes and Tom Shypitka losing to Conservatives.

For the NDP, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Nathan Cullen lost to Conservative Sharon Hartwell.

When election night counting ended, the NDP had received 44.6 per cent of the total vote, the B.C. Conservatives 43.6 per cent and the Greens 8.2 per cent.

Preliminary figures show 2,037,522 valid votes were cast, the first time the 2 million mark has been passed in a B.C. election, with turnout of about 57.4 per cent.

It was a rain-soaked election day for many voters, who braved high winds and torrential downpours brought by an atmospheric river weather system.

Two voting sites in Cariboo-Chilcotin in the B.C. Interior and one in Maple Ridge in the Lower Mainland were closed due to power cuts, Elections BC said, while several sites in Kamloops, Langley and Port Moody, as well as on Hornby, Denman and Mayne islands, were temporarily shut but reopened by mid-afternoon on Saturday.

— With files from Brenna Owen, Dirk Meissner, Brieanna Charlebois, Ashley Joannou and Darryl Greer

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2024.

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press


When will we know more about B.C.'s tight provincial election?

CBC
Sun, October 20, 2024 


B.C. NDP Leader David Eby and B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad are pictured delivering their final speeches on election night in the province on Sunday. (Darryl Dyck, Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press - image credit)


The full results of the 2024 provincial election in B.C. may not be known for up to a week, as officials tally a number of close races and the B.C. NDP and B.C. Conservatives are in a dead heat.

As of 8 a.m. PT on Sunday, the NDP were leading or elected in 46 seats, the Conservatives in 45 seats and the B.C. Greens were elected in two seats. In the B.C. Legislature, 47 seats are required to form a majority government.

However, based on preliminary results, CBC News has not projected the winners of 11 ridings — with the NDP leading in six of those, and the Conservatives in five.

Some of those ridings are likely to be subject to an automatic recount — in any ridings where the margin of victory is 100 votes or less.

The winners of those recounts will be determined during the final counting period between Oct. 26 and 28, according to Elections B.C.

In addition, Elections B.C. says that it will tally mail-in ballots and out-of-district votes in a number of ridings. As of midnight PT on Sunday, officials said that less than 0.3 per cent of preliminary results remained to be reported.

"Sixteen districts are continuing to count out-of-district ballots. These ballots take longer to count for several reasons," wrote an Elections B.C. spokesperson in a midnight statement.

"With B.C.'s vote anywhere model, some districts are reporting out-of-district results from dozens of other contests. Write-in ballots also take longer to count than ordinary ballots."

Voters are pictured at a voting place in the riding of Vancouver-Quilchena on the last day of advance voting in Vancouver, British Columbia on Wednesday, October 16, 2024.

Voters are pictured at a voting place in the riding of Vancouver-Quilchena on the last day of advance voting in Vancouver on Oct. 16. The full results of the B.C. election may not be known for a week. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Officials said "election official availability and weather-related disruptions" delayed some preliminary results.

Elections B.C. is set to continue counting votes on Sunday morning, and CBC News will update this story if it is able to project a winner.

Once the amount of mail-in ballots are revealed in each riding, CBC News may be able to project the results for some close ridings before final counting on Oct. 26.

Echoes of 2017 election

The NDP's Adrian Dix, incumbent health minister and the winner of the Vancouver-Renfrew riding, said that Saturday's election mirrored the 2017 election — which eventually saw the NDP form a minority government through a confidence and supply agreement with the Greens.

The results of that election were not known for a few days afterwards, but Dix cautioned that counting would still take place on Sunday morning.

"This is an extremely close election. The elections in B.C., really all my lifetime, have been four per cent either way — and this was no exception," he told the CBC's Rosemary Barton.

Health minister Adrian Dix is pictured during an announcement regarding at-home self-testing HPV kits in Vancouver, British Columbia on Tuesday, January 9, 2024.

NDP candidate Adrian Dix won his riding of Vancouver-Renfrew again — but he acknowledged the party lost a number of seats south of the Fraser River. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Dix said that the NDP's preliminary popular vote share, at 44.5 per cent, was the third-highest in the party's nearly century-long history.

"When you look at the NDP and the Green votes, there is a significant progressive majority in the province," he said.

"But all of that said, it is very very disappointing of course when you lose such outstanding colleagues."