Feds moving ahead with sustainable investing guidelines, but details still scarce

A Toronto artist based in Florida says he’s anxiously waiting to ensure the safety of his friends in the state and assess the potentially catastrophic damage to his property as Hurricane Milton barrels towards his community just outside Sarasota.

He’s just one of many Canadians who own homes in the state. Like him, many have fled because of this hurricane or its predecessor Helene, which unleashed devastation across several southern states just a few weeks ago.

But some are still there with plans to hunker down. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly was urging them to leave Wednesday. She said people planning trips to Florida should postpone as the state braces for the impact of the hurricane.

Speaking in a phone interview from Toronto, Viktor Mitic, an artist who owns a studio in Siesta Key, Fla., said he was able to flee just before Helene, but said he’s worried about his friends and neighbours who are still in the state.

“I have friends, they have lost everything,” he said. “A couple was staying at my place trying to recover because they lost their homes, they lost their cars, and they were trying to pick up the pieces. I had to tell them to leave.

“There’s going to be a lot of people who are going to be suffering through a lot of stuff,” he said. “I feel like somebody punched me in the stomach — that’s how I feel the whole day today.”

Mitic added he believes the sculptures and artworks still at his studio, worth millions, won’t survive as Hurricane Milton unleashes a barrage of rain and high-speed winds in the area.

“I think it’s all going to be gone by tomorrow morning,” Mitic said. He added that he had planned to head back to Florida on Tuesday night and ship his artwork to Canada, but the plans had to be cancelled.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen … I’m pacing up and down looking at the news,” he said.

The storm was downgraded early Wednesday evening to a Category 3, but is still expected to bring deadly storm surge, rain and winds. The National Weather Service said seven tornadoes have also hit the state in advance of Milton.

It was expected to make landfall later on Wednesday in the Tampa Bay area, which is home to more than 3.3 million people, and then move east affecting other populated areas including Sarasota, Orlando and Daytona Beach.

Millions of people have been ordered to evacuate across 11 Florida counties. In Pasco County, north of Tampa, officials have warned that if residents have not yet evacuated, they are advised to ride out the storm where they are.

The U.S. Coast Guard also said Wednesday that it is on standby, readying to help with search and rescue, provide assistance in assessing damage and responding to marine pollution incidents.

Florida is a popular destination for Canadian snowbirds, particularly in the winter, though Joly said her office doesn’t know exactly how many Canadians are now in the area.

She said her office has been in contact with American officials and that any Canadians who are registered with the embassy will have received an email telling them to leave.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2024.

— With files from The Associated Press.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

RICHMOND, B.C. – New Democrat Leader David Eby says he’s focusing his provincial election campaign on commitments to B.C. residents after acknowledging he didn’t speak enough about his team’s work on the cost of living at Tuesday’s debate.

But in his first scheduled appearance after the sole televised debate of the closely fought election, Eby repeatedly turned back to his opponent, saying B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad was “vague” about his plans, and pointed out again that the B.C. Conservatives had not released their costed platform.

Eby devoted much of his time at the debate to attacking Rustad, and the NDP platform released last week mentioned Rustad by name 56 times, compared with 29 times for Eby.

“He needs to be clear about what his plans are, what he’s going to cut, what’s not going to be available for families, so people can make a good decision for themselves and for their communities about which direction we go,” Eby said Wednesday of Rustad.

Leaders from B.C.’s three main political parties met onstage Tuesday for their first and only televised debate, going toe-to-toe over issues including health care, housing and the toxic drug crisis.

Rustad was nowhere to be seen on the campaign trail after the debate on Wednesday, while B.C. Green leader Sonia Furstenau went to an Irish Pub in Vancouver to make a public safety message.

Eby was in Richmond, where he and Richmond-Steveston NDP candidate Kelly Greene met with six supporters from multi-generational families who, seated around a dining room table, described how the NDP’s plans would help them.

Eby reflected on the previous night, telling reporters he was “wired” and had trouble falling asleep after the debate, adding that he would see his performance as successful if those watching at home felt he was focused on their priorities.

“That was my goal. That continues to be my goal. What drives me is being focused on addressing the issues people face in their daily lives,” he said.

Eby repeatedly attacked Rustad on various social stances during the debate, calling him an “anti-vaxxer” who is “embarrassing” the province. Rustad said he was “not anti-vax, I’m anti-mandate.”

Eby said in Richmond it was “critical” people knew where Rustad stood.

“There is a pretty stark choice between the two parties that are running a full set of candidates, and that choice is going to make a difference for the future of our province,” he said.

Eby said his government was “finally making progress” and that the province “can’t turn back now,” pointing to what he said were decreasing rental costs and a goal for every resident to have a family doctor by 2025.

Furstenau told reporters on Wednesday that if her party won the election she would disband the RCMP’s Critical Response Unit, saying the level of “violence and harm” caused by the unit “has drawn criticism worldwide.”

The unit was tasked to police protests against resource extraction but is being investigated by the RCMP’s federal watchdog agency after it accepted complaints alleging the use of excessive force, illegal tactics and unprofessional behaviour.

Furstenau also promised to set up a task force for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirited people to address “systemic inequalities.”

“The BC Greens are committed to ensuring that the justice system is truly about justice and that it reflects the systemic issues that we are yet to address in our society, including racism, poverty, and the toxic drug crisis,” said Furstenau.

If elected, Furstenau said her party will start working with family members of the victims of serial killer Robert Pickton to address the sense of unfairness felt by the families of his victims.

“This was the worst example of failure on the part of the police, and so in order to restore that trust and that confidence, the work has to begin in the community with the people that were affected, with the families,” said Furstenau.

The B.C. Conservatives confirmed Wednesday that Rustad had no public events planned for the day, with the party’s only event on its website being a meet-and-greet with Salmon Arm-Shuswap candidate David Williams in Armstrong, B.C.

David Black, an associate professor at the school of communications and culture at Royal Roads University, said it was unusual for a party leader to not make a public appearance after a debate since it was an opportunity for parties to shape the message to voters delivered on stage.

“That’s when — the day after — people’s impressions are hardening into views and opinions,” Black said, adding that this applied especially to close election races and debates in which no clear winner emerged.

“People are beginning to decide, if you think in these terms, who won or lost or which leader do I like, or which one I don’t,” he said. “It’s that after-debate shaping of opinion that is as important as a debate performance itself.”

He said Rustad still has an opportunity to shape his debate messages to voters this week, since that crucial moment when opinions are still forming can last 48 hours or even a few days after a debate.

“I think if a leader is absent from that, if they make themselves unavailable, I do fear — and this would be true of any leader — that there is something that they are concerned might be asked of them post-debate that would be embarrassing, that they’re defensive about something,” Black said.

Furstenau gained some high-profile endorsement on Wednesday from actor and environmental activist Mark Ruffalo.

Ruffalo posted his praise on social media platform X, saying that while the Irish Green Party backtracked on LNG, Furstenau is committed to ending LNG expansion and fossil fuel subsidies, while prioritizing people’s health and well-being.

Furstenau said she was thrilled to hear of the endorsement by Ruffalo, who played the role of lawyer Robert Bilott in the movie “Dark Waters,” which dramatized a legal fight against the chemical manufacturing corporation DuPont.

“I’m very grateful to Mark Ruffalo for recognizing that there is a serious political party in British Columbia that takes the moment we’re in seriously.

“I just wish that the other leaders would stand up with me and also take it as seriously as I do,” said Furstenau.

— With files from Nono Shen in Vancouver

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2024.

OTTAWA – A former chief of staff to a Liberal public safety minister has denied suggestions she worked to stall approval of a spy service warrant in early 2021 because it directly touched the operations of the Trudeau government.

Zita Astravas called the allegation “categorically false” during testimony late Wednesday at a federal inquiry into foreign interference.

The inquiry has heard that it took 54 days for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warrant application to be approved by Bill Blair, public safety minister at the time.

The average turnaround time for such applications is four to 10 days.

Michelle Tessier, CSIS deputy director of operations during the period, has told the inquiry there was frustration with the delay.

A timeline tabled at the inquiry says Astravas attended a briefing on the warrant application 13 days after CSIS sent it to Public Safety.

Astravas told the commission in a closed-door session during the summer that the questions she asked at the briefing were typical of those she would pose concerning such an application.

A newly disclosed summary of that testimony says she recalled a separate conversation about the accompanying Vanweenen list — a list of individuals who may be in contact with the target of the warrant and therefore could be affected.

Federal officials have cited national security in refusing to publicly discuss who CSIS hoped to surveil through the warrant.

Gib van Ert, a lawyer for Conservative MP Michael Chong, suggested to Astravas on Wednesday that after she saw “how deeply involved this warrant would bring CSIS with the affairs of your party and your government, you didn’t want it to go ahead, and if it had to go ahead, you wanted to slow walk it.”

Astravas replied that she couldn’t mention specifics of the warrant, “but I can tell you that your assumptions are categorically false.”

Blair, now defence minister, is slated to testify at the commission of inquiry Friday.

He has already told the inquiry behind closed doors he first became aware of the warrant application on the date he recalls signing it.

“He did not know that it had been received by his office before that date,” says a summary of Blair’s evidence. “He was not aware of the date his office received it and no one showed him the earlier dates on the documents.”

The summary says on the date he signed the warrant, he became aware that there had been some discussion and questions raised by his office with the director of CSIS and the deputy minister of public safety. “However, he was not aware of how long it had been with his office.”

Astravas testifed Wednesday that CSIS director David Vigneault would flag matters of priority and “we would work with the director and his team” in order to put an item on the minister’s agenda.

During this period of time, there were a number of contacts involving the CSIS director, the minister and the deputy minister, she said.

“At no point was (the warrant) raised as a matter of urgency.”

The commission of inquiry’s latest hearings are looking at the ability of federal agencies to identify and counter foreign interference. A final report is due by the end of the year.

In other testimony Wednesday, national security adviser Nathalie Drouin rejected the notion there are traitors in the House of Commons, despite an eyebrow-raising report from a spy watchdog that flagged questions about politicians’ loyalties.

The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians said in June that some parliamentarians were “semi-witting or witting” participants in the efforts of foreign states to meddle in Canadian politics.

The blunt but vague assertion by NSICOP, an intelligence watchdog made up of MPs and senators who are sworn to secrecy, prompted a flurry of concern that people knowingly involved in interference might still be active in politics.

Drouin, who advises the prime minister on intelligence matters, told a federal inquiry into foreign interference Wednesday the watchdog’s conclusion that some MPs might have acted in a treasonous manner makes her very uncomfortable, because that’s not what she sees.

Drouin said she has learned of inappropriate behaviour and lack of judgment on the part of certain politicians.

However, after reviewing the relevant intelligence she found no MPs had engaged in espionage, sabotage or other activities that put the security of Canada at risk.

“I remain extremely confident with respect to the present MPs,” Drouin said in French.

Putting forward any other impression diminishes the trust of the Canadian public in the democratic system, she added.

Inquiry commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue and her staff have identified and reviewed the intelligence reports referred to in both the classified and public versions of the NSICOP report.

The inquiry has also questioned senior government officials and intelligence agencies behind closed doors about the sensitive findings.

However, Hogue has said she will not be publicly identifying parliamentarians suspected by NSICOP of meddling.

She has cautioned that the NSICOP report’s specific allegations are based on classified information, which means the inquiry can neither make them public nor even disclose them to the people in question.

As a result, the inquiry won’t be able to provide the individuals with a meaningful opportunity to defend themselves, Hogue said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2024.