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British Columbians could find out who wins the provincial election on Oct. 19 in about the same time it took to start counting ballots in previous votes.

Andrew Watson, a spokesman for Elections BC, says new electronic vote tabulators mean officials hope to have half of the preliminary results for election night reported within about 30 minutes, and to be substantially complete within an hour of polls closing.

Watson says in previous general elections — where votes have been counted manually — they didn’t start the tallies until about 45 minutes after polls closed.

This will B.C.’s first general election using electronic tabulators after the system was tested in byelections in 2022 and 2023, and Watson says the changes will make the process both faster and more accessible.

Voters still mark their candidate on a paper ballot that will then be fed into the electronic counter, while networked laptops will be used to look up peoples’ names and cross them off the voters list.

One voting location in each riding will also offer various accessible voting methods for the first time, where residents will be able to listen to an audio recording of the candidates and make their selection using either large paddles or by blowing into or sucking on a straw.

The province’s three main party leaders are campaigning across B.C. today with NDP Leader David Eby in Chilliwack promising to double apprenticeships for skilled trades, Conservative Leader John Rustad in Prince George talking power generation, and Greens Leader Sonia Furstenau holding an announcement Thursday about mental health.

It comes as a health-care advocacy group wants to know where British Columbia politicians stand on six key issues ahead of an election it says will decide the future of public health in the province.

The BC Health Coalition wants improved care for seniors, universal access to essential medicine, better access to primary care, reduced surgery wait times, and sustainable working conditions for health-care workers.

It also wants pledges to protect funding for public health care, asking candidates to phase out contracts to profit-driven corporate providers that it says are draining funds from public services.

Ayendri Riddell, the coalition’s director of policy and campaigns, said in a statement that British Columbians need to know if parties will commit to solutions “beyond the political slogans” in campaigning for the Oct. 19 election.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

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TORONTO – A coalition of disability rights organizations has launched a Charter challenge against a part of Canada’s law on medical assistance in dying, calling it an “abandonment” of people with disabilities.

The group announced Thursday that it had filed a notice of application to challenge what’s known as track two of the MAID law, which it argues has resulted in premature deaths.

Under the law, patients whose natural deaths are not reasonably foreseeable but whose condition leads to intolerable suffering can apply for a track-two assisted death. Track one, in contrast, involves MAID applications from those whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable.

The group alleges some people with disability are seeking assisted death due to social deprivation, poverty and a lack of essential supports. It argues MAID should only be available to those whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable.

“A law that allows people with disabilities to access state-funded death in circumstances where they cannot access state-funded supports they need to make their suffering tolerable is grossly disproportionate,” the coalition claimed in its filing against the federal government in Ontario’s Superior Court.

“There is no deprivation that is more serious and more irrevocable than causing someone who is not otherwise dying to die.”

The office of the Attorney General of Canada did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The coalition behind the challenge includes national disability rights organizations Inclusion Canada, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, Indigenous Disability Canada and the Disabled Women’s Network of Canada. It also includes two individual plaintiffs.

Krista Carr, executive vice-president of Inclusion Canada, said track two of MAID has shown that people with disabilities need to be far better supported.

“The law has led people with disabilities ending their lives with so much life left to live because Canada has failed and refuses to provide the support they need,” she said at a news conference where the groups detailed their legal challenge.

“This isn’t compassion. It’s abandonment.”

The group does not oppose MAID at large, but is against the specific track two part of the law because it “singles out” people with disabilities, Carr argued.

The coalition alleges in its legal application that because track two does not require treatment options to be exhausted before accessing MAID, it may “incentivize death” over other options for people with disabilities.

“Death should not be a solution for disabled people who experience intolerable suffering but are otherwise not at the end of their lives,” it argued.

Carr said there are deeper systemic issues people with disabilities face that the government should address, such as a lack of accessible housing, limited employment opportunities and discrimination in the health-care system.

“What we need is a right to readily available disability supports and funding, not a quick and readily available pathway to a state-funded death,” Carr said.

Heather Walkus, national chair of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, said the government needs to do more to listen to people with disabilities.

“People with disabilities are being not just pushed to the margins, but driven off the cliff unless services and supports are in place,” she said in an interview.

Walkus, who has multiple sclerosis and vision loss, said she recently sought treatment for a hip injury and was asked by a medical professional, unprompted, if she’d considered accessing MAID – something she found “stunning.”

“I don’t suffer because of my disability,” Walkus said. “It’s other people’s perceptions, it’s the physical environment, the attitudinal environment, the policies and the support services, or lack of them – that’s what disables me and puts me in a position of suffering, not my disability.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

QUEBEC – Canadian rapper K’naan, known for the global hit “Wavin’ Flag,” has been charged for an alleged sexual assault in Quebec City dating back more than 14 years.

A charge sheet filed at the courthouse in Quebec City says the rapper, whose given name is Keinan Abdi Warsame, is charged with one count of sexual assault from July 2010.

The arrest warrant alleges the assault took place between July 16 and July 17, 2010, dates that coincide with the musician’s appearance at Quebec City’s popular Festival d’été de Québec.

The case was before the court today but the accused was not present.

The victim, whose identity is protected, was 29 at the time of the alleged assault.

The musician, who was born in Somalia, grew up in Toronto but now resides in Brooklyn, N.Y., according to the charge sheet. Messages left with him seeking comment were not immediately returned.

On Tuesday, he was given the cultural impact award at Canada’s SOCAN Awards for the global resonance of the 2009 hit “Wavin’ Flag.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

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