CLIMATE CRI$I$

Flood of atmospheric rivers in B.C. cost $675 million in insured damage: bureau


VANCOUVER — November's floods in British Columbia that swamped homes and farms, swept away roads and bridges and killed five people are now the most costly weather event in provincial history.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada made the statement as it released the latest cost estimate of $675 million, and that's only for damage that was insured.

The previous estimate was $515 million in losses, but the bureau says in a statement that much of the increase is due to business claims in places where commercial insurance is more available.

In contrast, it says many residents were located in high-risk flood areas where insurance coverage isn't available, which could cost all levels of government "well into the billions of dollars."

So-called atmospheric rivers flowed over southwestern B.C. for days in November, bringing record rainfall and quickly swelling waterways.

Mudslides swept people away in their cars, rivers carved new routes and washed out highways and bridges, cutting off major highways into the Interior, which stopped the supply chain from the coast to the rest of the country.

"While the insured losses from the November flood events are increasing, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of costs for this disaster will be borne by government," said Aaron Sutherland, a vice-president with the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

The bureau is a member of the federal, provincial and territorial task force on flood insurance and says it has put forward options to create a residential flood insurance program that includes a public-private partnership model.

It says that idea would help make affordable insurance available to residents in high-risk areas.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2022.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
BC Money laundering report points to government, RCMP failures, but finds no corruption


VICTORIA — Money laundering in British Columbia reached "staggering" levels due to inadequate efforts by police, politicians and regulators to curtail the crime, but there was no evidence it involved official corruption, a long-awaited public inquiry report has concluded.


© Provided by The Canadian PressB.C. money laundering public inquiry report, recommendations to be released

The report released Wednesday by former B.C. Supreme Court justice Austin Cullen, who led the commission of inquiry into money laundering in the province, said billions in illicit funds linked to organized crime and the drug trade impacted the real estate, gaming and luxury vehicle sectors.

Cullen said the former B.C. Liberal government and gaming officials at the Crown-owned B.C. Lottery Corp., were aware of suspicious cash flowing into casinos around the time of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics but they did not exhibit the "will" to fully tackle the problem.

"The government took reasonable steps but not sufficient steps," he said at a news conference. "The steps weren't up to the task of abating money laundering in the casinos."

Former B.C. gaming ministers Rich Coleman, Mike de Jong, and Shirley Bond, and former premier Christy Clark each took some anti-money laundering actions, but with limited results, said the report.

All four testified at the public inquiry, saying their actions were based on the best information they had on fighting money laundering.

“There is no evidence that any of these individuals knowingly encouraged, facilitated or permitted money laundering to occur in order to obtain personal benefit or advantage, be it financial, political or otherwise,” says the report.

Attorney General David Eby said he wanted explanations from members of the former government about their response to laundering, saying "they failed."

"I'll say frankly, that as a politician, I wouldn't be satisfied with a sash awarded by the commissioner that says 'not corrupt.' I hold myself to a higher standard," Eby said.

De Jong told a news conference it was "gratifying" the report found no evidence of "corrupt practices, collusion, any deliberate attempt to facilitate money laundering in this province by anyone within the previous government."

Coleman said in a statement that the report's conclusions "prove that allegations that the BC Liberals were ignoring money laundering, or were corrupt, were politically motivated oversimplifications."

The inquiry heard testimony over 133 days from almost 200 witnesses, including politicians, government and gaming industry officials, law enforcement officers, academics and experts.

Cullen’s report makes 101 recommendations, calling on the B.C. government to establish an office of an independent commissioner to focus on anti-money laundering, amend the Mortgage Brokers Act and Real Estate Services Regulation, and force casinos to lower the threshold to $3,000 for requiring proof of a gambler’s source of funds.


The 1,805-page report also describes what became an indelible image associated with money laundering in B.C., of people arriving at Vancouver-area casinos with large bags of cash, usually in $20 bills.

“These vast quantities of cash were frequently delivered to casino patrons at or near casinos, very late at night or early in the morning, by unmarked luxury vehicles. It should have been apparent to anyone with an awareness of the size and character of these transactions that Lower Mainland casinos were accepting vast quantities of proceeds of crime during this time period.”

The report says in 2014, B.C. casinos accepted $1.2 billion in cash transactions of $10,000 or more.

Although it said it was not possible to put a precise figure on the amount laundered through the B.C. economy each year, the report said evidence pointed to it being in the billions.

"Sophisticated professional money launderers operating in B.C. are laundering staggering amounts of illicit funds," says the report citing evidence that one underground banking operation was laundering up to $220 million a year at casinos.

The report says the federal government’s anti-money laundering regime is not effective and B.C. should focus on strengthening its own anti-money-laundering initiatives.

Eby said he was sure his colleagues in Ottawa would be disappointed by failures of the federal money-laundering regime described in the report.

He called it an indictment of federal enforcement. "This is not receiving priority attention from the federal government," he said.

Cullen’s report is also highly critical of the RCMP, saying the Mounties’ “lack of attention” to money laundering allowed unchecked growth of the crime since 2012.

“There was no sustained effort to investigate money laundering activity in British Columbia. Between 2015 and 2020, there were only two other major money laundering investigations that progressed to the charge-approval stage. This level of attention by the RCMP to money laundering is not commensurate with the money laundering activity and risks in this province.”

The RCMP said in a statement it was reviewing the report, and it had participated fully in the inquiry.

"To be effective, the prevention, detection, and disruption of money laundering requires a collective effort," said Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, commanding officer of B.C. RCMP. "The RCMP, in collaboration with its partners, remains committed to continuing to combat money laundering and financial crime.”

Premier John Horgan appointed Cullen in May 2019 to lead the inquiry after several official reports concluded that billions of dollars linked to organized crime and the drug trade had affected B.C.'s gaming sector and the real estate and luxury vehicle markets.

The public inquiry’s mandate was to make findings of fact and recommendations, determine the growth and methods of money laundering and find out if regulatory agencies or individuals contributed to the problem.

Cullen said the aim of his report was to offer advice that is realistic, practical and effective.

"For too long money laundering has been kept on the sidelines,” he said. “Too often it has been largely ignored. It’s time for that to change.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2022.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

Some highlight quotes from the B.C. money-laundering inquiry



VANCOUVER — The final report from the money laundering inquiry looking into cash from organized crime being filtered through British Columbia casinos, the real estate industry and elsewhere says RCMP, the federal anti-money laundering agency and the provincial government didn't do enough to stop the crime.



Here are some of the best quotes from the inquiry, the report and from Commissioner Austin Cullen:

"This Inquiry explored the myriad ways in which the greedy and the devious seek to make their crime-stained money appear legitimate," says the report from the Commission of the Inquiry into Money Laundering in B.C. released Wednesday.

"Sophisticated professional money launderers operating in British Columbia are laundering staggering amounts of illicit funds."

_

“The information was there to draw different conclusions about what was transpiring within the casinos, but, as I said in my report, I think there was a failure of will to deal with it,” Cullen told a news conference on Wednesday. “I don’t think that equates to deliberate or witting failure to deal with it, but I think it does represent a failure of will.”

_

“We’re getting large amounts of money coming into the casino in $10,000 bundles in elastic bands, that to me smells drug money,” Larry Vander Graaf, the former senior investigator with B.C.’s gambling regulator told the inquiry on Nov. 12, 2020.

Continuing his testimony the next day, he said: “They should have orchestrated something to prevent that money from coming in or at least say, ‘Where did you get the money?’”

_

Ross Alderson, the former director of the British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s anti-money laundering office, told the inquiry he was the "whistlerblower."

“Did I leak information to the media? Yes, I did. Would I do it again? Yes, I would,” Alderson told the inquiry on Sept. 9, 2021. “We wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t.”



"It wouldn't surprise me at all that when you've got that much cash floating around, some of it is going to be sourced inappropriately, some of it is going to be used inappropriately and so on, and you can attach whatever names you want to that," said former B.C. Lottery Corp. chairman Bud Smith, on Feb. 4, 2021, when asked about millions in cash buy-ins, mostly in $20 bills.

_

“The gap between the B.C. Lottery Corporation perspective and the Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch perspective was so significant that I had difficulty understanding which of the organizations I could turn to and rely on in terms of the best recommendations going forward,” Attorney General David Eby told the inquiry on April 26, 2021.

_

“The idea was never to try and get revenue at the expense of public safety or public confidence in our casino system. Stopping crime, stopping money laundering, was always a primary concern way over and above the revenue that came from (the B.C. Lottery Corp.)," former B.C. premier Christy Clark testified on April 20, 2021.

_

“As you look back, do you look back and say, 'Here's a problem that may have developed and I might have done things differently had I had different or better information at the time?'" Brock Martland, a lawyer for the commission, asked Rich Coleman, the gaming minister under the former Liberal government, on April 28, 2021.

“Hindsight's always 20-20,” said Coleman. “I didn't have better information at the time.”

_

“Viewed from the lens of what we now know, everyone could and should have responded more quickly to those large cash transactions,” said B.C. Lottery Corp. lawyer Bill Smart in his final summation at the inquiry on Oct. 15, 2021.

---

"We say if such a regime had existed during the period of inaction and wilful blindness, it is quite possible that many of the adverse effects of money laundering would have been mitigated," said lawyer Jitesh Mistry, who represents the B.C. General Workers Union, in final arguments to the inquiry on Oct. 18, 2021.

_

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2022.

The Canadian Press

BC
Save Old Growth organizer fears his climate activism has made him a target for deportation

​An international student leading a controversial civil resistance campaign to end old-growth logging in B.C. is fearful the Canada Border Services Agency is looking to deport him.

Zain Haq, a co-founder of the Save Old Growth (SOG) protest group behind a recent series of highway blockades across the province, has been ordered to show up at a CBSA office.

The third-year history major at Simon Fraser University who hails from Pakistan is in Canada on a study permit, a document issued by Immigration Canada.

The 21-year-old activist has gone into hiding after talking to a number of lawyers who advised him it’s likely CBSA wants to detain him. He has yet to find a lawyer who will represent him.

“Basically, what all of them suggested to me was that I should pack light and be prepared to travel,” Haq told Canada’s National Observer on Thursday.

Ultimately, Haq is worried CBSA intends to deport him because of his activist work.

“It’s my suspicion and other people's suspicion that it’s due to political reasons,” he said.

“I’m feeling very anxious because it's very rapid. It’s a lot to actually process and work with.”

Some conditions for obtaining a study permit include obeying the law and the absence of a criminal record.

The SFU student has been arrested 10 times for acts of civil resistance at various climate-related protests since 2020.

And on Feb. 15, he was sentenced to two weeks in jail for criminal contempt of court after violating an injunction involving the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX).

He was also fined $1,500 in B.C.'s Provincial Court for his involvement in an Extinction Rebellion protest against TMX on Nov. 27 that blocked a Canadian National Railway line in Burnaby.

And he’s currently facing five charges of mischief, he said.

But despite being locked up for contempt of court, Haq doesn’t believe it technically results in a criminal record.

CBSA officers visited his apartment twice early this week when he wasn’t there, Haq said.

In the first instance on Monday, CBSA officers left a letter for him with his roommate ordering Haq to attend the border agency offices the next morning or risk arrest. They returned again the following day.

Haq said he didn’t see the letter until the morning in question and had no time to respond or seek legal advice.

The threatening letter did not provide any information about why he was being told to attend the border agency.

The CBSA summons occurred the same day Save Old Growth launched its recent campaign pledging a rash of road blockades in June.

There’d been no prior phone calls or letters before agents suddenly knocked on his door, he added.

Haq will try to avoid contact with CBSA until he can finish preparing along with SOG organizers for his possible deportation. But he also intends to present himself to the border agency once he's obtained legal counsel.

“Because I’m one of the central co-ordinators, this is a really bad time for this to happen,” he said.

“It's really important that our mobilization doesn't collapse.

“So, I’m just trying right now to figure out what the plan is for me potentially not being in the city.”

CBSA can’t provide information on specific cases generally considered protected under the Privacy Act, said Rebecca Purdy, CBSA senior spokesperson in an email to Canada’s National Observer.

However, the agency has a legal obligation to remove all foreign nationals and permanent residents who violate the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), Purdy wrote.

But before taking any enforcement action, CBSA reviews all relevant factors related to a case in tandem with IRPA violations outlined in sections 34 to 42, she said, noting cases that involve safety and security issues are prioritized.

“Serious inadmissibility cases (those involving criminality, national security, war crimes, humans rights violations and organized crime) are a top priority for the CBSA,” she added.

“All individuals who are subject to enforcement action by the CBSA have access to due process and procedural fairness,” she said.

“Those being removed have either exhausted, or chosen not to pursue further legal recourse and have no legal right to remain in Canada.”

But Haq questions whether his activities to emphasize the gravity of the climate catastrophe should be deemed illegal while governments' failure to act in the global emergency is not.

“Our framing is that the illegal activities are being conducted by the government, and we're trying to do something about it.”

He acknowledged there’s a measure of risk for anyone who takes part in civil disobedience movements.

“Other people stopped caring about their status, their jobs and their careers to enter resistance and risk arrest,” Haq said.

“Putting ourselves in harm's way is how we maximize the likelihood of success,” he said, adding SOG’s fearlessness has made it possible to attract and mobilize a large number of people.

The dangers of the accelerating climate crisis are greater than any individual personal risk, he said.

“We’re faced with mass starvation and extreme likelihood of societal collapse over the next few years.”

The 21-year-old activist said he could face political persecution if he is indeed deported back to Pakistan.

“It’s very likely because I'll obviously be engaging in similar activities if I go back, and that could obviously lead to my imprisonment, or worse,” Haq said.

“Whether I’m in Canada or back home, I think political persecution is going to be common if you're going to be on the right side of history.”

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer

— With files from Patricia Lane / Canada’s National Observer

Save Old Growth protester shatters hip during blockade

A young man who fell from a ladder after it toppled during a protest against old-growth logging on a Vancouver Island highway was undergoing surgery for a shattered hip Tuesday afternoon.

Protester Trevor Mckelvie fell about 20 feet to the pavement when the ladder he was balanced on collapsed not long after an angry motorist held up by the blockade on the Patricia Bay Highway broke pieces off a support structure Monday morning.

The 26-year-old carpenter and volunteer firefighter, also known as Red, suffered a life-altering injury, said friend and Save Old Growth (SOG) organizer Sophia Papp.

He went in for what was expected to be a four-hour surgery on Tuesday afternoon at Victoria General Hospital, Papp said.

A police officer on scene examined video of the incident involving the driver, Papp said.

An RCMP spokesperson also told Canada’s National Observer Monday that there will be an investigation into the incident and cautioned frustrated motorists that police don’t condone illegal actions to bypass blockades.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Mckelvie, who will likely remain in hospital for at least a week before needing months of recovery and rehabilitation, Papp said, adding it’s expected his injuries will make it impossible to return to carpentry work.

Protesters don’t want to risk their lives by inconveniencing people, but other efforts to save remaining old-growth forests as a means to curb the ongoing climate crisis have been ignored, she said.

B.C. has experienced the ravages of flooding, fires and deadly heat in the span of a year, she added.

“We are all walking into this climate catastrophe with eyes and ears open,” Papp said.

“And I cannot believe we have to resort to such scenarios … that it’s come to this to get people — either angrily or hatefully — engaged.”

It’s unlikely SOG protesters will reconsider the personal risks or the lengths they will go to try to get the public and province to respond to the climate crisis, she said.

“I think it would be a disservice to stop doing this. I truly do,” Papp said.

“I’m not asking for a car, house or pay raise,” she said.

“We’re doing this in service to humanity and the gravity of the climate chaos the world is in.”

The road blockades will continue until John Horgan’s NDP government passes legislation to end the logging of old-growth forests in B.C., SOG said in a statement.

On Tuesday morning, three SOG protesters were arrested for blocking traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway near the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal after gluing their hands to the roadway.

Tuesday’s protest follows Monday’s launch of a daily disruption campaign that saw rush-hour road blockades at three locations and 14 arrests.

Despite acknowledging the frustration of inconvenienced motorists, Papp hopes serious injuries to SOG protesters won’t occur in the future. At past events, protesters took risks but weren’t badly hurt.

“This is definitely the first time where someone has sustained a permanent, life-changing injury,” she said.

“And I really, really hope it's the last.”

Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

PURGING TORY LAW

MPs pass bill removing mandatory minimum sentences from some criminal offences


OTTAWA — Members of Parliament voted to adopt the Liberal government's proposed legislation on mandatory minimum penalties Wednesday, bringing it another step closer to becoming law.



Bill C-5, which passed third reading in the House of Commons with a vote of 206 to 117, would amend the Criminal Code to remove mandatory minimum sentences for all drug convictions and for some firearms and tobacco-related offences.

Prosecutors would also be required to consider referring defendants to treatment programs or other support services instead of charging them for simple drug possession offences.

Justice Minister David Lametti has argued the changes, which reverse "tough on crime" measures passed under former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, would target the overrepresentation of Black and Indigenous people in the criminal justice system.

“The recent corrections and policing reports are a disappointing reminder that systemic discrimination and racism are a reality for too many in Canada’s criminal justice system,” Lametti said in a statement.

Thanks to an NDP amendment to the bill, existing criminal records associated with simple possession charges will now disappear within two years, or, for new convictions, two years after the end of the sentence.

NDP Justice Critic Randall Garrison said in a statement that the government’s acceptance of the provision is an acknowledgment of how “seriously flawed” their existing system for pardons is.

Garrison said the changes in the bill are long overdue. “We know that on this government’s watch, the percentage of Indigenous women in federal prisons has reached shocking and unacceptable levels.”

Canadian courts have already struck down some mandatory minimum sentences, calling them unconstitutional.

Still, Conservatives are holding fast on their line that Bill C-5 is “soft on crime” and “puts communities and victims at risk.”

Along with Independent MP Kevin Vuong, the Conservatives voted against the bill at third reading, while the other parties joined with the Liberals to pass it.

Conservative justice critic Rob Moore asserted in a statement that the mandatory minimums should stay in place, especially for weapons offences.

“Conservatives believe that serious, violent offences that are committed with firearms deserve mandatory prison time,” he said.

If the bill passes the Senate, it will be Liberals' first major move on the file after promising to review mandatory minimums in 2015.

Their previous version of the same legislation, Bill C-22, was introduced in February 2021 but died on the order paper when last fall’s federal election was called.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Liberals still mulling delivery of dental care as clock ticks to fulfil pledge to NDP

OTTAWA — The clock is ticking for the government to deliver on its ambitious promise to the New Democrats to deliver a dental care program for low- and middle-income uninsured kids by the end of the year, while cost estimates have nearly doubled.




The pledge is a key element of the Liberal government's deal with the NDP to stave off an election until 2025. The Liberals promised to provide coverage by the end of the year for children living in a household with an income of less than $90,000, expanding it next year to include under 18-year olds, seniors and persons living with a disability.

The plan is to fully implement the program by 2025.

The government has just over six months to launch a completely new program, but still appears to be in the consultation phase of the planning and hasn't settled on the most basic question: what form will this program take?

One option is for the program to be delivered as a federal transfer to provinces, which would either administer it alongside existing dental programs or amalgamate them together.

But the NDP have always pitched the program as a stand-alone federal dental insurance plan, administered by federal staff to fill the gaps in the patchwork of provincial and private programs across the country.

A third option to contract the program out to a private company is also on the table, according to several stakeholder groups who've been in talks with government officials but aren't able to speak publicly.

Each available path has its own pitfalls and would likely take more than six months to traverse, and it's not clear what concessions the NDP are willing to accept to get a federal dental-care program in place.

"We are driving dental care forward and are intent on delivering the stated goals. We believe we’ve found an excellent national model that meets expectations," said NDP health critic Don Davies in a statement Thursday.

The government's 2022 budget suggested the plan would cost $5.3 billion over the next five years, starting with a modest investment of $300 million this year to kick-start the kids program.

But in a legislative costing note, the PBO says the total cost of the program, if delivered as a transfer to provinces, could be closer to $9 billion, and the government would have to spend $939 million this year to get it going.

The PBO's report underscores just how complicated the government's task is in setting up a new dedicated program, the Canadian Dental Program said in a statement.

“While we fully support efforts by all levels of government to improve Canadians’ oral health, we’re concerned that the timeline previously announced may be exceedingly ambitious given the complexity of this issue," said Dr. Lynn Tomkins, the association's president.

The government has so far held several one-on-one and roundtable meetings with a large slate of stakeholders, including those with an interest in health care, oral health and insurance.

A task force has been stood up to navigate the various options. The executive director of that task force, Lindy Van Amburg, was not available for an interview.

Instead, Health Canada issued a statement to say that coverage will be provided for children this fiscal year, suggesting the government may be offering itself slightly more breathing room by giving itself until the end of March to fulfil its deal with the NDP.

"The government of Canada is committed to respecting the timelines that have been set out for this program, and will provide more information as the design of the program moves forward," the statement read.

Still, the timeline is ambitious. If, as the PBO interpreted, the government decides to download its dental care ambitions onto the provinces, it will need to get buy-in from 13 provinces and territories with a myriad of existing programs and their own unique industry landscape.

The dental association prefers this option because it would support existing programs that need funding, be less disruptive to the insurance sector and pose a lower risk of people going without coverage during the transition.

The Liberals went through a similar process to realize its cost-cutting goals for child care last year, but it took nearly a year to get all provinces and territories to agree.

The politics of signing new provincial and territorial dental care deals may also be complicated by the fact that several provinces, including Quebec and British Columbia, have emphatically requested more money from the federal health transfer with less political meddling from Ottawa.

Contracting out a federal program comes with its own headaches. Some stakeholders have told the government it could offer best value for money, but transparency and accountability could be lost in the event a private company takes over the coverage.

Awarding a multi-billion-dollar procurement process would normally take upwards of a year. Companies need time to prepare a bid, government officials need to carefully go through each one, and that's all before the winning company is able to start working on the program.

It's anyone's guess how long it would take to launch a federal bureau with dedicated government staff.

The government will need to pick an option before it can even begin delving into the arguably much more challenging and detailed work of deciding which services will be covered, how much reimbursement the plan will offer and how it will impact the industry at large.

It's also difficult to know precisely how much the program will cost. If, as some groups fear, provincial and employee insurance plans drop coverage and refer patients to the federal program, the Liberals' promise to the NDP could become much more costly, very quickly.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2022.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press

Liberals table bill responding to Supreme Court decision on 'extreme intoxication'

OTTAWA — The federal Liberals tabled a bill Friday that seeks to eliminate "self-induced extreme intoxication" as a legal defence for violent crimes, after the Supreme Court struck down a similar provision in May.



Bill C-28, introduced by Justice Minister David Lametti, would create new language in the Criminal Code that creates criminal liability when a person who commits a violent crime is "in a state of negligent self-induced extreme intoxication."

For a person to be found criminally liable under the drafted update of Section 33.1 in the code, the court would need to consider the foreseeability of the risk that ingesting intoxicating substances could "cause extreme intoxication and lead the person to harm another person."

In making that determination, the court would have to consider anything the person did to avoid such a risk.

The bill defines "extreme intoxication" as intoxication that renders a person unaware of, or incapable of consciously controlling, their behaviour.

The new language is being proposed in response to the Supreme Court's unanimous decision that the previous wording of Section 33.1, which eliminated "self-induced intoxication" as a defence, was unconstitutional.


In the court's decision, Justice Nicholas Kasirer wrote that convicting someone for how they behave in a state of automatism, or when they are too intoxicated to stay in control, violates principles of fundamental justice.

Under the previous version of the law, the court found a person could be convicted without the prosecution having to prove that they acted voluntarily or that they ever intended to commit a crime⁠ — even though a "guilty action" and a "guilty mind" must ordinarily be present for someone to be found guilty of a crime.

The court upheld two acquittals of men who committed violent acts after voluntarily consuming drugs, and ordered a new trial in a third, similar case.

It suggested Parliament could enact new legislation to update the language of the Criminal Code and hold "extremely intoxicated" people accountable for their violent crimes⁠.

The section the court struck down had been added by the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien in 1995, in response to a Supreme Court decision that acquitted a man of sexual assault because he was blackout drunk at the time of the offence.

The court has made it clear that simply being drunk or high, short of a state of automatism, is never a defence for a criminal offence.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2022.

Marie-Danielle Smith, The Canadian Press

US Feds taking first steps toward revising race, ethnic terms

The federal government is taking preliminary steps toward revising racial and ethnic classifications that have not been changed in a quarter century following calls for more accurate categories for how people identify themselves in federal data gathering.


© Provided by The Canadian PressFeds taking first steps toward revising race, ethnic terms

The revisions could open the door to changes long desired by advocates on census and survey forms. Among them are a new category for people of Middle Eastern and North African descent who currently are classified as white and efforts to make categories less confusing for Hispanic participants.

The chief statistician of the U.S. said in a blog post Wednesday that her office was initiating a formal review of the race and ethnicity classifications maintained by the Office of Management and Budget which were first outlined in 1977 and have not been revised since 1997.

The purpose of any changes to the standards will be to better reflect the diversity of the U.S., said Karin Orvis, the chief statistician, who was named to the position by the Biden administration earlier this year.

The review will wrap up by summer 2024 after getting input from government experts across agencies and public feedback, according to the chief statistician. That date would be months before a presidential election that could lead to a stop to any revisions if there's a change in administrations. Momentum for changing the classifications grew in the years leading up to the 2020 census, but it was halted after then-President Donald Trump took office in 2017.

“I understand the importance of moving quickly and with purpose," Orvis said. “It is also important that we get this right."

Besides helping to provide a portrait of the demographic makeup of the U.S., the categories are used to enforce civil rights, voting rights and employment discrimination laws. Under current classifications, race and Hispanic origin are separate categories on census forms and surveys.

Some advocates have been pushing for combining the race and Hispanic origin questions, saying the way race is categorized often confuses Hispanic respondents who are not sure how to answer. Tests by the Census Bureau in the 2010 census showed that combining the questions yielded higher response rates.

The need to change the current standards can be seen in 2020 census results in which the “some other race" category surpassed African Americans as the nation's second-largest racial group. The “some other race" category was made up overwhelmingly of Latinos, said Arturo Vargas, executive director of NALEO Educational Fund.

“Right now, the Census Bureau knows the way it collects data is fundamentally flawed. It’s confusing and distorts the true nature of our nation’s diversity,” Vargas said. “For the Latino population, the current construct is flawed when it comes to Latinos being able to identify themselves as Latino and by the race category.”

Advocates also have been pushing for a category of Middle Eastern and North African, also known as MENA, for the once-a-decade census and other federal demographic surveys. The Census Bureau recommended adding a MENA category to the 2020 census form, but the idea was dropped by the Trump administration.

Several U.S. House members equated the lack of a MENA category to “the longstanding erasure of a group of our fellow Americans" in a letter this week to Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young and Census Bureau Director Robert Santos.

“OMB standards determine how our political institutions distribute material resources, political representation, and research funding," said the letter from 18 House Democrats, including Michigan's U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the lone Palestinian American in Congress. “These resources are vital components of growth and development for any minority community, particularly those who experience historical barriers to meeting basic needs and accessing support."

Meanwhile, Asian communities also have been calling for more nuanced details. Grouping Asians together in a single race category masks wide variations among different Asian groups, according to advocates.

“Aggregated data points in health, education and other issues perpetuate the persistent and pernicious myth that all Asian Americans are affluent and well-educated — by not allowing for a deeper dive into the differences within subgroups," said Terry Ao Minnis, an official at Asian Americans Advancing Justice ' AAJC.

For many civil rights groups, updating the categories has been a priority for years.

“We have been calling for urgency on this matter,” Vargas said. “We are heartened that we are seeing some movement.

Mike Schneider, The Associated Press

NOVA SCOTIA

Active shooter training still not sufficient following Portapique: paramedic union

The union representing paramedics in Nova Scotia says the current active shooter training still isn't up to standard, after first responders who worked during the 2020 mass shooting told an inquiry they were put into a position of danger "we should never been put in."


© Liam Hennessey/CPA memorial remembering Lillian Hyslop is seen along the road in Wentworth, N.S. on Friday, April 24, 2020.

Graeme Benjamin and Rebecca Lau - Wednesday

The mass casualty commission, which is looking into the April 2020 mass shooting that claimed 22 lives in the Portapique, N.S. area, heard from the paramedics on Monday.

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Mass shooting inquiry - N.S. paramedics offer dramatic testimony about their role

"Things that I think are really important in order to grow from the whole situation still hasn't been addressed," Melanie Lowe told the inquiry.

The paramedics were staged just off Portapique Beach Road across from Blueberry Field Road, which the shooter used to escape.

The first responders went home that night not knowing he was still on the loose, and was told to come back to work the next day.

"At the end of the day, where was the support? Where was the care?" said paramedic Jeff Aucoin.

"I think we were put in a position of danger we should have never been put in."

Kevin MacMullin, a spokesperson with International Union for Operating Engineers Local 727, which represents Nova Scotia paramedics, says the current active shooter training isn't sufficient.

"We should be fully prepared to know what to do when we arrive on those scenes, how to protect ourselves and our patients," said MacMullin.

"It's something that's high time to be done. This is two years later and we're not trained."

The lack of mental health services has also been a concern, with all the paramedics saying they never received follow-up calls after their post-incident briefing.

"Something that traumatic, they should have been put off work for an indefinite period," said MacMullin.

EHS, which employs the paramedics, did acknowledge in a statement that they "continue to learn about how we could have supported them more fully since that unexpected event."

An internal review process found several areas of change, including moving EHS radios to an encrypted system and drafting guideline that states employees will be relieved from duty "in these instances."

EHS Executive Director Charbel Daniel told Global News that among the changes made since the mass shooting are a bolstered mental health team and an overhaul of its "All Hazards Plan."

"Ensuring that our teams have a voice, that they're heard, and that our continuous improvement process is led by their voices and the changes that they'd like to see," explained Daniel.

Daniel praised the first responders who answered the call that day, saying EHS "greatly appreciate the strength and honesty the team has demonstrated."

As for the first responders, they hope sharing their experience will result in real change, although that is yet to be seen.

"If it happened again tomorrow, I don't see what would be different," Advanced Emergency Medical Dispatcher Bruce Cox told the inquiry.

N.S. teachers' union ponders how to restore gains taken by unconstitutional law

HALIFAX — The union representing Nova Scotia teachers is pondering options to restore the losses its members incurred because of an unconstitutional law that imposed a labour contract on them in 2017.



The law passed by the former Liberal government five years ago was struck down Tuesday by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, with Justice John Keith commenting that Bill 75 violated good-faith collective bargaining "and was terribly wrong."

Paul Wozney, president of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, says it's complicated to undo the actions of the Stephen McNeil government.

"The years when the wages and contract language would have applied have already passed .… We're now dealing with a different government, and how do you address those harms?" he asked in an interview Wednesday.

The Supreme Court decision noted that when the bill passed, the union lost key provisions it had negotiated, including two days of professional leave and the creation of a labour-management council that would provide for arbitration if disputes over working conditions couldn't be resolved.

The imposed contract set wage increases to three per cent over four years. It also wound down a long-term service award, which had allowed teachers to accrue up to one per cent of their salary each year toward a lump-sum payment at the end of their careers.

Wozney said some of the damage caused by the province's actions, particularly the restrictions on the ability to strike, have been erased by the court decision. However, he said the contractual losses of teachers remain unresolved.

He says the union's options include appealing the court decision to seek more remedies, or attempting to persuade the current Progressive Conservative government to restore the union's lost gains through negotiations.

“We have some soul-searching on what to do about making this right for teachers who suffered from this legislation," Wozney said.

"You can spend a lot of money on legal processes and come out a loser. We've invested a lot of energy in this challenge, and the question is, will there be another pathway without spending a whole lot more money on court processes?"

Premier Tim Houston said Thursday that he believes the court decision means the parties should "discuss what remedies there should be." His government is "open to some of the things that are important to the union membership," he added.

Asked if the specific losses of the union would be reconsidered, he responded, "I would encourage both sides to go to the table with the things they want to talk about, and all of those things would and should be included in the discussions moving forward."

Wozney said one other option is for the NSTU to work with other unions as they consider their next steps in a constitutional challenge of Bill 148, a separate bill the McNeil government passed that imposed a wage package on tens of thousands of public sector workers.

The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, along with the Federation of Labour said Thursday in an email they are considering "appropriate next steps with the legal challenge to Bill 148."

Finance Minister Allan MacMaster, whose department is responsible for labour talks, said neither of the two bills have an impact on current negotiations. "Our government wants to be different than the last government. We don't want to be seen as antagonistic. We want to be fair and reasonable," he said.

However, Wozney said labour law reform is needed to discourage similar behaviour from future premiers.

"McNeil benefited politically from this," he said. "He used teachers as a punching bag to play to a political base. He won the election by the skin of his teeth, and he did so on the backs of a base who believed it was right to be tough on unions."

Michael Lynk, a law professor at Western University, said it's unlikely that governments will pass legislation that reduces their ability to impose contracts on public sector unions when talks fail. He said he's hoping the Supreme Court of Canada will further clarify conditions under which governments can impose contracts on unions.

"What it's going to be in the future is judge-made law, where public sector employers have to allow the bargaining process to go its full route, and, if the government still feels it needs to impose an agreement, (it) can only do so after bargaining in good faith," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2022.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press

Halifax children’s hospital sounding alarm over its ER department ‘crisis’

As Nova Scotia's health system continues to face strain from the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergency department at a Halifax children's hospital is sounding the alarm.


l Halifax  IWK Health Centre

Karla Renić - Wednesday

Katrina Hurley, the chief of the IWK emergency department, says the hospital's ER is in a crisis, seeing record numbers of patients for spring

“It’s nearly beaten a record level of ever, patient volume in a single day,” said Hurley.

“A lot of these patients are also acutely ill. So it's a high level of acuity in addition to a high volume of patients.”

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Hurley said there’s no one illness that’s dominating in the high patient volumes, something that’s unusual for this time of the year.

“In the past, when we've had a large surge, it's been almost exclusively due to a single virus such as RSV or influenza.”

Nova Scotia continues to see hundreds of newly-confirmed cases of COVID-19 each week and restrictions — including wearing face masks — have been lifted since March 21.

But according to Hurley, it’s not just that everyone has COVID-19 without masks in place.

“(It is) masks are off and everyone has everything,” she said.

The IWK emergency department has been seeing patients with fever, cough, vomiting, diarrhea and hand-foot-and-mouth disease, among others.

“The masks protected the children from COVID, but they also protected them from all those other childhood ailments. And so removing the masks has brought all of those illnesses back, pretty much at the same time.”

The ER at the hospital has been working at overcapacity for six weeks every day, said Hurley.

“Some days are better than others. But at some point during most days we become overwhelmed.”

According to Hurley, the previous single-day record for ER visits at the IWK was 180 patients. Last Monday, they saw 178. In previous years, the average would be about 100 patients a day during this time.

Because of overcrowding during a normal day at the ER, waiting rooms become full and some patients end up waiting for hours. In the past six weeks, Hurley said there have been 47 long waits, which exceed 12 hours.

“The fact that 47 people sat in our department and waited for 12 hours to me is a sign of a crisis in our department.”

Pediatric emergency medicine is the most overcrowded, with the average child patient being under the age of five.

Hurley said she believes people come to the ER as a last resort.

“The epidemiology of illness in the community has changed and the health-care system has changed," Hurley said. "There are more patients than ever that don't have a family doctor, and patients’ ability to access care in walk-in clinics appears to be quite limited — at least that's what patients tell me.”

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In addition to that, the pandemic has placed a lot of strain on staffing in Nova Scotia, so the department often needs to fill shifts on short notice.

And after spending hours in the waiting room, patients often become “verbally very upset with staff,” said Hurley.

“That can be difficult to face day in and day out, particularly when ... the staff is working in triage.”

She also said it can be distressing for health staff to see people in need waiting for care. “I feel really badly. I feel that I haven't maybe done my job well enough,” she said.

The department currently has vacancies, though they rarely work understaffed because people will work overtime, or assist from other units.

Health Minister Michelle Thompson said in a media availability Wednesday, there has been some work done to assist the IWK with staffing

“Nurse practitioners, as well as an increase in physician hours to assist with the increase in patients that they’re seeing,” said Thompson.

But the overcrowding can’t just be boiled down to issues within the emergency department, according to Hurley.

“We can't control what's happening in the community. We can't control where and how people access health care… People decide what their emergency is. Some of those are things that I don't consider an emergency, and some of them are things I wish they had come for sooner.”

Hurley said there’s no one solution to this problem.

“If we add more walk in clinics, does that mean people will use them? If we add more nurses to the emergency department, does it mean we can move patients faster when we don't have enough beds?”

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Heading into the summer, Hurley said July and August have in the past been the quietest months of the year in terms of patient volumes. But this year, that might not be the case.

When it comes to what the government can do, Hurley said she’s not sure as it’s a complex system. Data gathered now can inform decisions in six months, but not immediately.

“My biggest concern is that we don't have the ability to respond to surges while they're occurring,” she said.

“I can't tell you how hard we're trying. We meet all the time, we're always strategizing.”

In the meantime, she wants families to be prepared when visiting the ER. The sickest patients are seen first, and others may have to wait so bringing toys, food and distractions is a good idea.

“I want them to know that we're doing the best we can to provide them with the care they need.”

-- With files from Alicia Draus.