NDP widens lead in tight B.C. election races, raising chance of forming government

OTTAWA – A veteran Ottawa journalist is firing back against what he says are “entirely false” claims by a former Conservative cabinet minister that he acted as a Russian agent.

David Pugliese, a reporter with the Ottawa Citizen, said in a statement posted to X Friday that the claims Chris Alexander made at a House of Commons committee are ridiculous and put his family in danger.

“His statements are entirely false and merely highlight another tactic in the ongoing attacks on Canadian journalism,” Pugliese wrote.

At a public safety and national security committee meeting Thursday, Alexander claimed Pugliese was recruited by Russia because of his role as a journalist. He provided documents to the committee about the claims.

Alexander was an immigration minister in Stephen Harper’s Conservative government and a former Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan.

He also mentioned several subjects Pugliese has recently written about, including alleged Nazi war criminals in Canada and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s grandfather’s Nazi ties.

“These are themes that Moscow would be delighted to promote,” he told MPs.

Postmedia, which owns the Ottawa Citizen, rejected Alexander’s claims in a statement Friday and said it stands firmly behind Pugliese.

“Yesterday, a witness before Parliamentary committee made ridiculous and baseless accusations against David, and suggested his work was compromised by a foreign entity,” the company said.

“At no point have we ever doubted David’s work or integrity, nor have we ever been approached by any intelligence entity concerning David or his work.”

Reached by phone on Friday, Alexander said he stands by the comments he made at the committee and the documents presented to them.

The documents, obtained by The Canadian Press, are described on the cover page as being from the Archives of the State Security Committee in Kyiv, Ukraine, and are dated 1984 through 1990. The translated versions of the documents name Pugliese but largely refer to him as “Stuart,” saying the KGB saw him as a potential asset and sought for one of their agents, “Ivan,” to build a relationship with him.

Alexander told the committee the documents are “evidence of a serious effort to undermine Canada’s national security and collective self-defence,” adding they were authenticated by several experts, and he believes they were shared with the Department of National Defence and Canadian Security Intelligence Service. He said he has been aware of the documents “for many months.”

In an interview, Pugliese said the documents given to the committee are the same ones involved in an ongoing civil lawsuit over reporting he did about allegedly faulty equipment sent to Ukraine.

He said he has no way of knowing whether the documents are real, but that “the claims that I am some kind of Russian agent … that’s fabricated, that’s false.”

He said some specific details in the documents are incorrect. For example, one document dated 1984 describes Pugliese as a journalist in Ottawa, but Pugliese said he did not live in Ottawa that year.

Pugliese said he received no notice from committee that these documents were going to be brought up at Thursday’s meeting nor that Alexander would be speaking about them. He said he has asked the committee to allow him to appear to defend himself but had not received a response as of late Friday afternoon.

The Canadian Association of Journalists denounced the accusations in a statement, saying the claims are dangerous and designed to undermine journalists’ credibility.

“It’s a sad irony these comments were made in a meeting examining disinformation campaigns,” the organization said.

Pugliese said in his statement that Alexander’s claims would be considered libel if they hadn’t been said at a parliamentary committee. Testimony at committees is protected by parliamentary privilege.

“I understand the articles I have written … are upsetting to those in and outside government,” he said.

“However, these articles are accurate. I am proud of my 40 years of journalism. This is what journalism is supposed to be about; publishing things the powerful do not want to see in public.”

Pugliese also said he was disappointed that NDP MP Peter Julian and Conservative MP James Bezan did not push back at Alexander’s claims.

In the meeting, Bezan questioned Alexander on his allegations about Pugliese, calling the documents “disturbing.”

Julian called Alexander’s testimony “stunning” and “explosive.” He asked whether other journalists in Canada could be similarly compromised, and Alexander said yes.

Julian did not respond to a request for comment.

Bezan said in an emailed statement that his knowledge of the allegations is limited to Alexander’s testimony and the documents he provided. He said he questioned the witness but did not make any allegations himself.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2024.

Elections BC said late Friday that several hundred ballots remain uncounted in the tightest undecided races after the province’s nail-biting vote last weekend.

The NDP is ahead of the B.C. Conservatives by fewer than 100 votes in the two closest races, so the numbers released by Elections BC give room for the lead to switch, increasing the chance of a Conservative majority.

The election authority said there are an estimated 681 mail-in and absentee ballots to be tallied in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, where the NDP candidate currently leads a B.C. Conservative by just 23 votes.

In Surrey City Centre, where the NDP’s lead is 93 votes, there are an estimated 476 uncounted votes.

Elections BC added that estimated number of ballots may still be subject to change.

“Some districts are still screening certification envelopes containing mail-in ballots and absentee ballots in preparation for final count,” the election authority said. “During final count, certification envelopes that are found to contain no ballot or more than one marked ballot will be set aside and not considered.”

Last Saturday’s B.C. election failed to produce a majority of 47 ridings for either Premier David Eby’s NDP or John Rustad’s Conservatives after the initial count.

More than 66,000 mail-in and absentee ballots across the province’s 93 ridings will be counted over the weekend and on Monday, while full recounts will be conducted in Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre because they were so close.

The Conservatives are currently elected or leading in 45 ridings, so if they flip both of the recount races and hang onto their leads elsewhere, they will secure the narrowest of majorities.

Eby’s NDP are elected or leading in 46 ridings, so if they hang onto one or both of Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre while maintaining their other leads, they will be in a position to form a minority government if they secure the support of the two elected Greens.

Depending on what happens in this weekend’s final tallying process, BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau is holding potentially pivotal power in the province’s next government despite losing her own bid for re-election.

Furstenau is staying on as leader of the party and has said that “no party deserves all the power” after last weekend’s close results.

She said any conversation on who the Greens support — in case neither the NDP nor the Conservatives reach 47 seats in the final count — will have to start with the Green Party’s platform that includes support for the carbon tax and no future liquefied natural gas project approvals.

The Greens can also theoretically form a minority government with the Conservatives, but there are wide ideological divides between the two parties.

Furstenau has said she spoke briefly with Eby while a call from Rustad went unanswered because she “didn’t recognize the phone number.”

There are seven other too-close-to-call ridings going into the weekend’s final count, and the margins in all are exceeded by the number of uncounted votes that were listed for each riding by Elections BC late Friday.

Among the other tight races, there are an estimated 634 votes to count in Surrey Guildford, where the Conservatives hold a 103-vote lead. But as the size of the margins increases elsewhere, ranging from 148 to 354 votes, the leads become harder to flip.

Elections BC said the result of the Surrey City Centre recount will be announced Sunday when it is complete, and the Juan de Fuca-Malahat recount result is expected Monday. The tally of mail-in and absentee votes in all ridings will be updated on the Elections BC website as the count goes on.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2024.

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KITCHENER, Ont. – The man who stabbed three people in a University of Waterloo gender studies class last year says he is remorseful and wants to apologize to anyone who was affected by his violent act.

Geovanny Villalba-Aleman addressed the court at the conclusion of his sentencing hearing today, saying his intention was not to promote violence and that he doesn’t know “what’s going on” in his head.

The 25-year-old has pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault, one count of assault with a weapon and one count of assault causing bodily harm in the June 2023 attack that left a professor and two students with stab wounds.

Federal prosecutors have argued the offences amount to terrorism in this case because they were motivated by ideology and meant to intimidate the public, while provincial prosecutors argued that the crimes were hate-motivated.

The provincial Crown cited Villalba-Aleman’s hateful remarks about feminists and members of the LGBTQ+ community in a manifesto written before the attack among the aggravating factors the court must consider in the sentencing.

But the defence is arguing that Villalba-Aleman’s motivation was his belief that “left-wing thinking” stifled his freedom of speech, and that the court should consider his statements to police a more accurate reflection of his thoughts than what he wrote.

Defence lawyers have rejected the notion that the attack was driven by ideology and also said the federal Crown has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that terrorist activity took place in this case.

As the weeklong sentencing hearing drew to a close Friday afternoon, Ontario Court Justice Frances Brennan asked Villalba-Aleman if there was anything he wanted to say to the court.

He replied that he wanted to apologize “to anybody who might be affected by this” and said he believes that violence is “not good” for any reason.

“Even though I committed a violent attack, I still … don’t know what happened,” he said. “Right now, I don’t know what’s going with my head. I still feel remorseful for what happened.”

Villalba-Aleman said that some people may not believe his apology since “the act is done,” but he asked the judge to consider his remorse.

“If there is a way to reconsider the situation because I admit that violence is not good … my intention was not to promote more violence here,” he said.

Villalba-Aleman, an international student who came to Canada from Ecuador in 2018, initially faced 11 charges in the case.

Court has heard that he will eventually be subject to a deportation order.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.