Business groups warn of dire consequences unless feds step in as rail shutdown looms

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A judge has tossed three more lawsuits filed against lawmakers who shared social media posts that falsely accused a Kansas man of being among the shooters who opened fire at a rally celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory.

Denton Loudermill Jr., who was briefly handcuffed but not charged in the chaos that followed the deadly Feb. 14 shooting, filed federal lawsuits against three Republican Missouri state senators: Rick Brattin of Harrisonville, Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg and Nick Schroer of St. Charles County.

The dismissal of those suits Monday comes a month after a similar suit was dismissed against U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee.

The judge cited issues with jurisdiction. Loudermill, who is from Olathe, Kansas, filed in federal court in Kansas, rather than in Missouri, where the lawmakers were from.

Loudermill’s lawyer, Arthur Benson, said that he planned to refile the lawsuits soon. Benson said previously that he also plans to refile a lawsuit against Burchett in Washington, D.C., where the congressman was when he posted about Loudermill on social media.

The shooting outside the historic Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, killed a well-known DJ and injured more than 20 others, many of them children.

Loudermill’s lawsuits said he froze when the gunfire erupted, standing in the middle of the chaos so long that police had put up crime scene tape by the time he finally started to walked away. As he tried to go under the tape to leave, officers stopped him and told him he was moving “too slow.” They handcuffed him and put him on a curb, where people began taking pictures and posting them on social media, the suits said.

Loudermill ultimately was led away from the area and told he was free to go.

But soon posts began appearing on X, formerly known as Twitter, that included a picture of Loudermill, a car wash employee who was born and raised in the U.S. The posts called him an “illegal alien” and a “shooter,” even though he had no involvement, the suits said.

Versions of those posts, one by Burchett, were then were re-posted on the three Missouri lawmaker’s accounts, accompanied by comments from the lawmakers.

Schroer asked for confirmation or denial from law enforcement when he reposted the message from Burchett’s account.

“I’ve been sent videos or stills showing at least 6 different people arrested from yesterday but officially told only 3 still in custody,” Schroer wrote on social media over Burchett’s post. “The people deserve answers.”

After the judge’s ruling, Schroer described the lawsuits as frivolous in a statement and said he was “exploring all legal options available against persons and media outlets that knowingly spread fake news instead of what I actually asked on social media.”

Hoskins said in a statement that he agreed with the judge’s decision and would “continue to pray for the innocent victims of the Kansas City parade shooting.”

Brattin said elected officials “must have the right to speak publicly on matters of public safety without fear of liberal elites in the media creating false narratives in an attempt to destroy their credibility and provoke frivolous legal attacks.”

The judge had denied as moot an argument that the three senators were protected by “legislative immunity” in their roles as lawmakers.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office, which defended the three senators, praised the ruling.

“Questions of Missouri law belong in Missouri courts, not in remote courts in other states,” spokesperson Madeline Sieren said in a statement. “We have said that from Day One. Missourians should rest assured that they have an Attorney General who will always follow the law, even when it’s not easy.”

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MONTREAL – The federal government’s directive to end the countrywide rail shutdown in August marked an “unprecedented” move, says Canada’s labour tribunal, signalling a stauncher approach to disputes that rarely see direct intervention from cabinet.

Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon’s instruction that the Canada Industrial Relations Board halt work stoppages and begin binding arbitration amounted to an order, the quasi-judicial body said in a new document explaining its earlier ruling.

“These ministerial directions are unprecedented in that … the minister has effectively directed the board to end the strikes and/or lockouts and to impose final and binding interest arbitration to settle the terms of the collective agreements,” wrote chairwoman Ginette Brazeau in a unanimous decision released Tuesday.

However, the tribunal also said the labour minister was simply using his “discretionary powers” under the Canada Labour Code, and that the board had no leeway to refuse the directive.

Union members and labour advocates have criticized the move, saying it undermined workers’ negotiating leverage and bargaining rights.

MacKinnon has said he supports collective bargaining but that the directive was needed to limit the fallout of a work stoppage that halted freight and commuter traffic across the country.

On Aug. 22, Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. locked out some 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers in anticipation of potential job action.

The shutdowns ranged from one to four days and capped off a two-week operational wind-down from coast to coast, marking the first time in decades the country’s two major railways were stopped at the same time.

Following the minister’s directive, the tribunal ruled on Aug. 24 that freight trains must start rolling again and imposed binding arbitration on all parties involved, in spite of a challenge from the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference.

The union has launched a court challenge to the board’s decision.

In his order, MacKinnon drew on Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code. The provision allows the labour minister to “direct the board to do such things as the minister deems necessary … to maintain or secure industrial peace” — such as ending a work stoppage via binding arbitration.

The tribunal said Tuesday the provision has been used “sparingly” over the past two decades. Its records indicate only 10 other examples since 1984.

The decision carried an undertone of skepticism while also stating that the board had no authority to challenge or change the minister’s directive.

“One can certainly question whether it was Parliament’s intent, when it modified Section 107 of the Code in 1984, that a ministerial direction would be used to end a work stoppage and order workers back to work,” the members wrote.

“The assessment of whether the minister appropriately exercised that discretion and made that determination within the applicable legal constraints falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of the (Federal Court).”

The board also pointed to a pair of task forces from 1968 and 1995 that rejected the idea of handing authority to cabinet or the labour minister to intervene in public interest disputes.

Instead, the experts recommended creating an “external and standalone body” to advise the minister on the best way to step in, including when to resort to back-to-work legislation — a more democratic forum than a sole cabinet member or executive body — the tribunal said Tuesday.

The unprecedented part of Mackinnon’s directive stems from its concrete instructions and lack of wiggle room for the tribunal.

“In the present matters, the minister was explicit in his direction to the board to order the resumption of operations and the return to work of employees. He further directed the board to extend the terms of the existing collective agreements, thereby foreclosing the period for a work stoppage while also providing for the imposition of binding interest arbitration to settle the terms of the new collective agreements,” the tribunal wrote.

“There was no ambiguity in this.”

The government may have learned its lesson after a looser directive from then-labour minister Seamus O’Regan during a strike by WestJet mechanics in June resulted in a ruling for binding arbitration — but failed to halt the job action.

The tribunal said in that case that the government never technically barred a strike, allowing workers to maintain the work stoppage that grounded flights until a deal was reached at the bargaining table.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2024.

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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia doesn’t provide effective cybersecurity for its digital health networks, and as a result is exposed to unnecessary risk, says a new report by the province’s auditor general.

Kim Adair’s report published Tuesday found a lack of accountability and collaboration between the three government entities that oversee the system: the health department, the cybersecurity and digital solutions department, and Nova Scotia’s health authority.

The situation is problematic because of the province’s growing reliance on digital networks to store people’s personal and sensitive health information, the report says.

Citing attacks in other provinces, like Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario, she said, “We’ve seen several health-care organizations fall victim to serious cyberattacks that have compromised sensitive information, disrupted patient care and disabled networks.”

Nova Scotia’s “lack of IT governance gives minimal accountability for cybersecurity during a time of rapid expansion” of the province’s digital health network, Adair said.

The report says key governance structures established to manage and monitor the network, along with cybersecurity efforts, were abandoned by 2022.

The auditor said her office hired Toronto-based independent experts from Packetlabs to run cybersecurity tests between April 2021 and June 2023, which revealed a “pervasive tolerance” for accepting risk and a failure to manage ongoing risks. More specifically, the report found that external health sector contract holders — such as pharmacies and doctors’ offices — weren’t required to include cybersecurity training before accessing the network.

The report also said testing showed most proposed technology projects that added to or changed the data flow or architecture of the digital health system didn’t fully comply with a mandatory three-phase review process put in place by a government panel. As well, the report said the review board allowed projects to connect to the network without meeting cybersecurity standards.

To strengthen the system, the 42-page report makes 20 recommendations, including the creation of an information technology governance framework to manage the digital health system, the completion of all outstanding cybersecurity assessments and regular mandatory cyber awareness training for all health network users.

Adair said her office would follow up on the progress of the digital health network a year from now. So far, she said, response from the government agencies involved has been positive.

In an emailed statement, a provincial spokesperson said the departments of health and of cybersecurity and digital solutions, along with Nova Scotia’s health authority said changes in the system are already underway.

“We are making investments and reducing risk as much as possible, while we modernize our digital health infrastructure. We have already begun work on many of the auditor general’s recommendations and will continue to work on the rest,” spokesperson Rachel Boomer said in an email.

The province said it will not disclose details of the changes underway to prevent further cyber threats from bad actors.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2024.

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