Court order will compel release of records in Dye & Durham competition probe

MONTREAL – One of the lawyers for a Quebec man who was acquitted Wednesday of a decades-old double murder hopes her client’s case will convince other wrongfully convicted people not to lose hope.

For the first time in more than 40 years, Claude Paquin woke up today as a completely free man after Quebec’s Crown prosecutor’s office declined to try him for a second time for the 1978 murders of Ronald Bourgouin and Sylvie Revah.

Lawyer Julie Harinen describes the result as “historic and exceptional” because so few murder convictions are overturned in Quebec.

Paquin was first convicted of the murders in 1983, his appeal was unsuccessful, and he served 18 years in detention before being granted parole.

Project Innocence Quebec took up his case, and this year federal Justice Minister Arif Virani ordered a new trial after concluding there were reasonable grounds to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred.

Harinen says the prosecutor’s decision to drop the case was based on new evidence that emerged, including that the informant who served as the main witness against Paquin changed his story and received money and favours in return for testimony.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

A resident of British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast says a rare tornado that she saw touch down on Monday was like a scene out of a movie with trees coming down “like dominoes” in the high winds.

Western University’s Northern Tornadoes Project, which tracks storm events across Canada, has confirmed that what Lynn Smith captured on video during the windstorms that hit much of the B.C. coast was a tornado, with wind speeds of 115 km/h.

Smith says she turned on the camera hoping to send a tongue-in-cheek clip to a relative about the “beautiful day” outside Sechelt, where she regularly travels from her home in Halfmoon Bay.

Smith says stormy weather in the region isn’t out of the ordinary but when she saw a “big, healthy” tree come down, she knew something wasn’t right.

The footage captured by Smith from her car shows winds whipping up forest debris as a tree falls across the road and she gasps in disbelief.

Smith says she was worried someone was injured and called 911 when she turned around, flashing her lights at oncoming traffic to warn them of the downed trees.

Northern Tornadoes Project executive director David Sills says the team is still awaiting satellite imagery data on the tornado event.

The Sechelt tornado is only the second recorded by the project in B.C. this year, after one that occurred over Mabel Lake in the B.C. Interior in August.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VANCOUVER – Canadian retailers say their frustration is growing with the lack of movement to resolve disruptions at Canada’s two largest ports, including silence surrounding a lockout at British Columbia ports that is into its fourth day.

Matt Poirier with the Retail Council of Canada says there “doesn’t seem to be any urgency” in resolving the disputes in B.C. and Quebec and it may result in empty shelves as the holiday season approaches.

Poirier describes the situation as a “triple-threat” of labour disruptions, referencing uncertainty at Canada Post, the ongoing lockout of unionized workers at B.C. ports including Vancouver, as well as a strike that has closed two container terminals indefinitely in Montreal.

Poirier says retailers could face a “staggering” impact on the holiday season “where every delivery counts,” with four days of port disruptions potentially equating to about a month in delays due to ripples in the supply chain.

In B.C., the lockout by the BC Maritime Employers Association at container port facilities across the province is being met with silence from all sides.

The employers say no talks have taken place or are scheduled with either mediators or the union representing about 700 foremen — a situation described as unusual by labour expert Mark Thompson, who is a retired University of British Columbia professor.

He says it appears the employers are “playing hardball” by making what they call a final offer to the union, but the federal government has been hesitant to intervene beyond mediation because the right to strike is protected in the Canadian constitution.

“I think we’re in a kind of dance out there,” Thompson said. “Somebody’s waiting for the other side to say chicken, and it hasn’t happened yet.”

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 has said there are no updates on the situation and picketers remain at terminal sites across B.C.

A spokesman at the office of federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon referred questions on Wednesday to a social media post by the minister on Nov. 2.

MacKinnon said in the post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he spoke with both sides of the dispute and emphasized “it is the responsibility of the parties to reach an agreement,” a point he repeated on Monday in question period at Parliament.

The dispute over issues such as port automation’s effect on unionized workers has been simmering since last year when the previous agreement between employers and the union expired in March 2023.

It comes on the heels of a separate dispute last year between employers and cargo workers that resulted in a strike that froze B.C. ports for 13 days.

The Port of Vancouver — the largest in Canada — has also experienced a disruption involving railways in August and another with grain terminal workers in September.

Meanwhile, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority president and CEO Peter Xotta was set to speak at a pre-scheduled event on the state of the port at the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.