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Heat waves are increasing across Canada — and hotter nights are also dangerous – CBC.ca

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When it comes to climate change, there is one fairly well-understood extreme that will affect humans in the decades to come: heat.  

Scientists know that climate change will see events like hurricanes, droughts, floods and heat waves increase in frequency or intensity. But when it comes to heat waves in particular, it’s already being seen across the world with deadly consequences. According to a recent study published in the journal The Lancet, more than five million deaths annually between 2000 and 2019 were associated with “non-optimal temperatures,” with roughly 500,000 of these deaths related to heat. 

While many of these deaths occur in tropical countries, heat waves are beginning to affect more northerly climes.

During the heat wave that suffocated British Columbia at the end of June into the first week of July, more than 800 people (as of this writing) died in the province. For comparison, in the same period last year, there were 232 deaths, according to B.C. Coroners Service’s chief medical officer, Dr. Jatinder Baidwan. The coroner’s office is continuing to investigate all of the deaths in order to nail down exactly how many were heat-related.

A man leaves a community centre in Toronto during a heat wave earlier this month. Some cities have been opening cooling centres during heat waves for people who do not have access to air conditioning. (Michael Wilson/CBC)

While we know that daytime temperatures are rising, in some regions — specifically in parts of Ontario and Quebec — nighttime temperatures are warming faster

Those warmer nights mean our bodies don’t have any time to cool off. For people with health issues like heart disease or asthma, for example, this can be extremely problematic and potentially deadly.

“Our bodies were not designed to put up with environmental heats that exceed the high 30s,” Baidwan said. “If you think about it, what happens to an air conditioning unit? When you stress it, it builds up with lots of ice on the outside and then it stops working. And in some ways that’s a great analogy for what happens to our bodies. With extreme heat, we just find it really hard to do the usual homeostatic sort of mechanisms and protocols that happen in our body.”

WATCH | How can we better prepare our homes and buildings for rising temperatures?

After a record-breaking heat wave in B.C., experts weigh in on long-term and efficient infrastructure solutions. 5:59

The heat wave that affected the Pacific Northwest was highly unusual — a one in 1,000-year occurrence, according to a recent analysis by the group World Weather Attribution, a collection of scientists who analyze severe weather events. However, parts of eastern Canada, including Ontario and Quebec, are seeing more frequent heat waves and tropical nights, defined as nighttime temperatures 20 C or higher. 

For example, according to the Climate Atlas of Canada, the number of tropical nights in Toronto averaged roughly 6.9 annually from 1976 to 2005. With climate change, under a scenario where carbon emissions decline substantially, that is expected to climb to 17.6 annually from 2021 to 2050.

If current rates of carbon emissions continue, the average number of tropical nights in Toronto is expected to hit 20.6 annually from 2021 to 2050. From 2051 to 2080, under the two different scenarios for emissions, the average number would rise to 26.4 and 42.8 respectively.

In 2018, a heat wave blanketed Montreal from June 29 to July 5; temperatures averaged roughly 34 C during the day. Nighttime temperatures didn’t fall below 20 C. In all, 66 people died.

“We’re seeing an increase in hot extremes in Canada that’s larger than the global mean warming,” said Nathan Gillet, a research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. “The average warming in Canada is about twice the global mean warming. And the heat extremes are also increasing at a similar rate. And it’s not just the hottest, maximum temperatures, but the minimum temperatures, the nighttime minimums that are also increasing.”

Widespread effects on nature

Average temperatures in Canada have already warmed by 1.7 C and the country is warming at more than twice the rate of the planet. 

Increasing heat waves with higher-than-average temperatures during days and nights are also taking a toll on animals and delicate ecosystems, as well as crops.

A study published in the journal Global Change Biology last October found that nighttime temperatures are rising across most of the world. In those areas that saw more nighttime temperature warming than daytime, there was more cloud cover, higher precipitation and more humidity. This can affect nocturnal animals, but also animals that are active during the day who use the cooler nighttime temperatures to recover from heat stress.

Dead fish are seen floating in Alberta’s Pembina River. The fish are thought to have died due to the heat wave across Alberta that resulted in low oxygen in rivers and lakes earlier this month. (Stephanie Coombs/CBC)

“[The changes] increase the boundaries at which nocturnal species can operate. So you may get shifts in ranges, which then messes up ecosystems from changing competition and changing predation/prey relationships, and things like that,” said Daniel Cox, lead author of the study and a research associate in the U.K. at the University of Exeter’s Environment and Sustainability Institute.

A new set of metrics

With the changing climate, governments are finding they need a new set of metrics for severe heat events. 

In 2013, Australia added new colours to their heat maps, as temperatures soared beyond anything they’d experienced in the past.

More recently, on Tuesday, the U.K. Met Office issued its first Amber Extreme Heat Warning as temperatures were forecast to rise to the 30s in parts of the country. Daytime temperatures in the 30s may not seem high compared to some parts of Canada but it’s all about what people are accustomed to. 

In another example of how governments are attempting to adapt to a warming climate, a team from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in Quebec, together with the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) announced on Wednesday that a new heat wave warning threshold for the province should be introduced. Quebec’s warm seasons, researchers said, are starting earlier and ending later. 

As Earth continues to warm, air conditioning may seem like a possible solution. The problem is that energy is needed to operate them, and this also produces heat. And cities create “heat islands” where heating is further amplified by  concrete structures, adding more stress to people who are living in a hotter climate. Some cities like Toronto and Montreal are trying to introduce greener building codes and designs to address this. 

“[Heat waves aren’t] something we think about as a big hazard in Canada, but as the climate warms, we’re going to see this more and more,” said Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Gillet. “Heat waves cause deaths and and are dangerous. And yeah, it is something … that we’re going to see more and more here in Canada.”

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Time limits were meant to speed up justice. They also halt hundreds of criminal cases

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When police turned up at Melanie Hatton’s home in Kelowna, B.C., in November 2021, she says they found her in the bathroom covered in blood, her then-husband Jeffrey Maclean was standing over her “in an aggressive manner.”

She describes a gruesome scene in a court filing, with blood from her head wound allegedly smeared on Maclean’s mouth from his whispering in her ear. The filing in a civil lawsuit against Maclean says he tolda 911 operator his wife was “bleeding like a pig.”

Hatton said police and prosecutors told her that the criminal case against Maclean in B.C. Supreme Court would be a “slam dunk,” and he was charged with assault causing bodily harm and resisting arrest.

But the case was thrown out in August 2023 — not for a lack of evidence, but because the Crown took too long to bring it to trial under a set of strict timelines that have reshaped the way criminal cases are handled since a landmark 2016 ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Supporters say the so-called Jordan ruling has sped up proceedings and strengthened Charter rights for prompt justice.

But the legacy of Jordan is mixed, and some victims say the time limits work in criminals’ favour. Eight years into the rules, cases continue to collapse because the time limits are breached, although these represent a small fraction of all cases.

A review of statistics provided by provinces and territories shows that since the beginning of last year, more than 400 criminal cases countrywide have been dismissed, stayed or withdrawn as a result of Jordan challenges.

Among the defendants were some accused of sexual assault, child exploitation, fraud and drug trafficking; murder cases have also been thrown out in previous years.

The case against Maclean was among those dropped.

Hatton said she was thrown into “an absolute pit of despair and shame” after the case was thrown out.

Prosecutors blamed factors including COVID-19 and the availability of Maclean’s lawyer for the delays and the failure of the case.

Hatton thought otherwise, and sent a one-line email to the Crown prosecutor.

“I said ‘this is on you,'” said Hatton, who now lives in Ontario with the couple’s two children.

None of the allegations in Hatton’s civil suit against Maclean have been proven or tested in court, and in his response, Maclean “denies each and every allegation.”

A ‘REVOLUTIONARY’ RULING

The Jordan ruling imposed “a presumptive ceiling” of 18 months between charge and the actual or anticipated end of a trial in provincial court, and 30 months in superior courts.

Barring “exceptional circumstances,” exceeding those limits was deemed by the country’s top court to breach the Canadian Charter, which requires that criminal defendants “be tried within a reasonable time.”

Exactly how long “reasonable” meant was unclear until the high court’s ruling in R. V. Jordan.

The case would upend criminal law practice countrywide, but B.C. lawyer Tony Paisana, who was involved in the trial, didn’t know just how significant it would be at the time.

“Looking back, it’s certainly difficult to say that we, any of us, really expected this to come out the way that it did and how revolutionary it was going to be,” he said in an interview.

The case started modestly enough in December 2008 with the arrest of an alleged drug dealer named Barrett Jordan in Langley, B.C., along with a number of others who police accused of running a “dial-a-dope” operation.

It took more than four years from Jordan being charged to the end of his original trial.

He unsuccessfully argued that his Charter rights to a timely trial had been breached in both the B.C. Supreme Court and Court of Appeal before it ended up in the Supreme Court of Canada.

Paisana and colleagues Eric Gottardi and Richard Peck argued that the right to a timely trial went back hundreds of years, quoting the 1215 Magna Carta in their submissions.

Paisana said the high court’s decision in Jordan “completely achieved its intended objective, which was to speed up criminal trials.”

“And to have various judicial participants, that being the judge, the Crown, the defence, the accused, everyone start paying attention to the timeliness of trials,” he said.

“It was a chronic problem that existed in our system and Jordan was what we call in the law a ‘clarion call’ to change the culture that surrounded criminal trials.”

He said cases were stayed for unreasonable delays before this case, but Jordan established new thresholds.

“There’s just a greater confidence in the justice system when things are resolved more quickly,” he said. “I think it’s a net positive effect that the judgments had. It’s not without its controversy, but nothing that we do is without its controversy, frankly.”

The debate over Jordan was reignited in B.C. this summer, after a case was dismissed against a man accused of molesting a six-year-old.

Premier David Eby said at the time it was due to a “perfect storm” of delays, and that “not one case should be dismissed this way.”

The Jordan deadlines, he said, had been “very restrictive” and “devastating in other provinces.”

Among at least 409 Jordan challenges that ended cases across Canada since the start of last year were 26 in B.C., involving allegations ranging from fraud, to theft, drug and weapons offences, and sexual assault.

“Every case that is judicially stayed due to delay is a concern. Victims and the public expect to see cases determined on their merits and not dismissed because of unreasonable delay,” the B.C. Ministry of Attorney General said in a statement.

“We have taken this issue seriously and invested in transforming processes and increasing resources to prevent judicial stays,” the statement said.

In Maclean’s case, the B.C. Supreme Court found in August 2023 that his trial had been set “well beyond the Jordan limits,” through no fault of the defence, nor any delay caused by COVID-19 interruptions of court operations.

“If the Crown had not failed in its disclosure obligations,” the judge wrote, “the matter would have likely concluded within the Jordan limits.”

‘A HUGE NEGATIVE IMPACT’

Stacey Purser, a criminal defence lawyer in Edmonton, said Jordan had not resulted in the “culture of urgency that I think the Supreme Court was trying to create.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t think that much really has changed since Jordan other than to say that, you know, once you get past those presumptive deadlines, people seem to be in quite a panic to get things done,” she said.

Vancouver defence lawyer Kyla Lee, who specializes in impaired driving cases, said Jordan has had a “huge negative impact on not just my practice, but the practice of law generally for criminal lawyers.”

“The problem is that now every time you go to court, no matter what the purpose of the appearance is, there is always a discussion about Jordan,” she said. “It comes up at every single appearance and it’s gotten to the point where the ceilings in Jordan are effectively being weaponized against accused individuals.”

With a busy schedule, finding court dates that work for both her and prosecutors is challenging, and the inability to agree results in arguments over who’s to blame. Judges have to conduct “microscopic analysis” to determine the length and cause of trial delays, Lee said.

“It has made everything far more complex, far more contentious, and it’s really done a disservice to the timely administration of justice because more court time is being taken up simply to address these issues,” she said.

Former Toronto resident Cait Alexander, a Canadian model and actress now living in Los Angeles, founded the group End Violence Everywhere after an abusive relationship nearly ended her life, alleging her ex-partner brutally beat her with a wooden rolling pin in July 2021.

Multiple charges were stayed due to delays, and Alexander said she felt “disgusting” after having received assurances from prosecutors that the case would go ahead.

She said the only consequence against her ex-boyfriend — who was originally charged with assault causing bodily harm, uttering threats, obstruction and other offences — was a peace bond, and she left the country in fear of her safety.

“That’s all they could offer me because they didn’t have time to prosecute my case,” she said.

Alexander testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women this past July, recounting stories of survivors including Hatton, whose experience she called “harrowingly similar” to her own.

In her testimony, Alexander told members of the committee that the “government doesn’t care” about survivors and victims of intimate partner violence.

“We, as Canadians, have Charter rights that are essentially a ‘get out of jail free’ card for criminals, but what about survivors’ rights? Why are our Charter rights never accounted for?,” she testified.

Like Hatton, she’s suing her ex-boyfriend because it’s “the only form of legal justice I have left,” she told the committee.

Alexander testified to the committee again last week, telling members that Jordan timelines shouldn’t apply in cases of sexual assault or intimate partner violence.

“There should be no time limit or stay permitted with human-on-human crimes,” she testified, later tearfully describing the Jordan rules as “sickening” and “terrifying.”

Paisana said it was important to keep in mind the “bigger picture” of Jordan, the importance of timely trials and the rights of accused persons who are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

“It benefits society as a whole in a very dramatic way, as opposed to one or two individual cases in a given a year, in a given jurisdiction, that might be stayed as a result of it,” he said.

For Hatton, the collapse of the case against her ex-husband was devastating, and continues to influence her life. She now has multiple security systems in her new home after fleeing her old life in B.C.

In October 2023, Hatton filed her civil lawsuit against Maclean in B.C. Supreme Court, alleging a “history of abuse” throughout their relationship, seeking damages for assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation.

She said getting a relocation order allowing her to move out of B.C. with her children is a “slight bit of justice.”

But she now lives in a state of hyper vigilance.

“I sleep with a golf club beside my bed,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.



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Donald Trump election sparks U.S. interest in move to Canada, say immigration lawyers

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Vancouver immigration lawyer Ryan Rosenberg says he’s been getting so many inquiries from disaffected U.S. voters that he set up a website to address their concerns.

It’s called “Trumpugees.ca” and asks visitors on the home page: “Tired of Trump? Thinking about Canada? We can help.”

Rosenberg – a managing partner at Larlee Rosenberg, Barristers & Solicitors – says he and his colleagues are sensing a spike in immigration interest from a broad swath of U.S. residents disappointed by Donald Trump’s election win Tuesday.

Immigration lawyer Meghan Felt says she’s hearing the same thing from her office in Newfoundland. In Toronto, Royal LePage president Phil Soper says online searches of Canadian properties spiked in the months leading up to the vote.

Maryland geologist Jackson Speary says he’s felt disillusioned with politics for “a very long time,” and is considering job or educational opportunities in Canada.

The 22-year-old says he’s worried Trump’s environmental and economic policies will hinder his work, much of which involves ensuring compliance to federal environmental rules. He wonders if his career would be more stable in Canada.

“It’s a very scary time to be my age and try to continue my career. Especially when you know political turmoil is so topsy-turvy,” Speary says from Stevensville, Md., where he works.

“I feel as though there’s a lot more job security for me in Canada, and potentially a lot more job security for me anywhere else,” he says, noting he’s also considering a move to New Zealand, where he has professional contacts.

Grand proclamations to move to Canada are nothing new, says Rosenberg, who recalls similar promises after George W. Bush’s second election from “mostly blue state Americans who wanted out.” Rosenberg dubbed those would-be Canadians “Bushugees.”

But this time, he says the demographics of the disaffected seem broader in scope, encompassing wealthy Americans, ethnic minorities and Democrats disappointed by the loss of Kamala Harris.

Felt doesn’t have a targeted website like Rosenberg nor is she doing focused promotion, but she says word-of-mouth chatter led five Americans to reach out in the past few days. That’s a jump from maybe one a week.

One client who had mused on moving to Canada two months ago emailed after the vote.

“They’re moving forward, like, immediately,” Felt says from St. John’s, N.L.

More often than not, Americans are curious about Canada’s urban centres and don’t ask about political differences between provinces or countries, she says.

“Canada is Canada. I’ve heard of Americans refer to Canada as like a really large Massachusetts.”

Speary says he’s heard Canada has capped the number of foreign students permitted but that likely won’t dissuade him from pursuing grad school north of the border.

“It is going to be harder, but I think I would be willing to try.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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In the news today: N.S. votes: Tories to release platform today

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Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

N.S. votes: Tories to release platform today

The Progressive Conservatives are set to release their party platform today ahead of Nova Scotia’s Nov. 26 provincial election.

They will be the second of the three major parties to release a platform this week after the Liberals presented a plan containing $2.3 billion in election promises over four years.

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill, meanwhile, has an announcement planned in Halifax where he is expected to discuss improving health care for women.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender is in Cape Breton where she is scheduled to spend much of the day campaigning.

Tory Leader Tim Houston pledged to remove parking fees at all provincial hospitals, while Churchill promised to reduce immigration levels to align them with provincial Labour Department targets he says have been exceeded by the government.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

StatCan to release October jobs report today

Statistics Canada is set to release its October labour force survey this morning, shedding light on employment trends and wage growth last month.

RBC is forecasting the economy added a modest 15,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to have ticked back up to 6.6 per cent.

The jobless rate declined slightly to 6.5 per cent in September.

The Canadian job market has loosened significantly as high interest rates have restrained economic growth.

The Bank of Canada, which lowered its policy interest rate by 1.25 percentage points since June, now says it wants to see the economy rebound.

RBC says it expects the unemployment rate to reach seven per cent next year, before trending lower again.

What Trump’s election could mean for rates

Experts say Donald Trump’s election victory could shift interest rate policy in the U.S. as his promised policies risk higher inflation, which could ultimately have implications for Canadian rates and the loonie.

Markets rallied Wednesday and into Thursday in the wake of his victory as investors prepared for what his proposals might bring.

Among those promises are large tariffs on imported goods, especially from China, as well as lower tax rates and lighter regulation.

Economist Sheila Block says the large tariffs proposed by Trump would likely put upward pressure on inflation in the U.S.

Higher inflation would mean the U.S. Federal Reserve could be slower to cut interest rates, and markets are already shifting their bets on how low the central bank is likely to go on rates.

B.C. election judicial recounts expected to finish

Judicial recounts in British Columbia’s provincial election should wrap up today, confirming whether Premier David Eby’s New Democrats hang onto their one-seat majority almost three weeks after the vote.

Most attention will be on the closest race of Surrey-Guildford, where the NDP were ahead by a mere 27 votes, a margin narrow enough to trigger a hand recount of more than 19,000 ballots that’s being overseen by a B.C. Supreme Court judge.

Elections BC spokesman Andrew Watson says the recounts are expected to conclude today, but certification won’t happen until next week following an appeal period.

The Election Act says the deadline to appeal the results must be filed with the court within two days after they are declared, but Watson says that due to Remembrance Day on Monday, that period would end at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

When an appeal is filed, it must be heard no later than 10 days after the registrar receives the notice of appeal.

Another full recount is also taking place in Kelowna Centre, narrowly won by the B.C. Conservatives, while a partial recount will take place in Prince George-Mackenzie to tally votes from an uncounted ballot box that contained about 861 votes.

The Prince George-Mackenzie recount won’t change the outcome because the B.C. Conservative candidate there won by more than 5,000 votes.

If neither Surrey-Guildford nor Kelowna Centre change hands, the NDP will have 47 seats and the Conservatives 44, while the Greens have two seats in the 93-riding legislature.

Another beluga whale dies at Marineland

Three weeks after the death of another beluga whale at Marineland, the Ontario government is speaking publicly about its ongoing investigation of the park, saying water troubles are under control after a recent investment.

The province’s chief animal welfare inspector told The Canadian Press that to her understanding, marine mammal deaths at the tourist destination in Niagara Falls, Ont., have not been related to water quality.

Five belugas have died at the park in the last year and 17 have died since late 2019, government records show. Three other belugas sold to a Connecticut aquarium in 2021 have since died.

Kiska, the country’s last remaining killer whale in captivity, died in April 2023. One dolphin, one harbour seal, one grey seal, two sea lions and two Magellanic penguins have also died at the park in the past five years.

Marineland did not answer questions about the animal deaths, and instead twice responded to recent queries with accusations that journalism published by The Canadian Press was driven by its reporter’s “personal animal rights beliefs and activism.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024



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