Lawsuit against Nova Scotia for flood response says boy's death 'preventable' | Canada News Media
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Lawsuit against Nova Scotia for flood response says boy’s death ‘preventable’

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HALIFAX – The mother of a boy who died during flash flooding in Nova Scotia is suing the province for negligence, in the latest instance of a citizen trying to hold government accountable for alleged failures during a climate disaster.

Tera Sisco, the mother of six-year-old Colton Sisco — who was swept into floodwaters on July 22, 2023 — is the plaintiff in a notice of action filed against the provincial government and West Hants Regional Municipality on July 17.

The lawsuit, which also names Sisco’s father and grandparents as beneficiaries of the action, doesn’t specify the amount of financial compensation sought.

In a written statement on Tuesday, the mother said she hoped the legal action would allow her to “pursue answers” about what happened. “This next step is hopefully one way to openly learn, educate and better protect those within our province,” she wrote.

Natalie Harnish, 6, was in the same truck as Colton when the vehicle became submerged in floodwaters; both died. Fifty-two-year-old Nick Holland and 14-year-old Terri-Lynn Keddy were swept away from a vehicle on the same road — Route 14 — and also died.

Sisco alleges that the municipality and province failed to send an emergency alert in a “reasonable time frame” after the deputy fire chief in Brooklyn, N.S., requested one at 1:12 a.m. on July 22, 2023, and the RCMP requested soon after, at 1:24 a.m. A review by the municipality completed in May noted that the alert calling for residents to “shelter in place unless unsafe” was sent at 3:06 a.m.

The allegations in the lawsuit are not proven in court, and the municipality and the province have not yet filed statements of defence. Mayor Abraham Zebian said in a text message to The Canadian Press that the municipality can’t comment on legal matters, and John Lohr, minister of municipal affairs, also declined to comment.

According to the notice of action, Chris Sisco, Colton’s father, woke at 2:28 a.m. to find his apartment flooded, and he and four others — including the two children — started to flee in a truck owned by a neighbour. However, as the truck left the driveway it was caught in floodwaters and washed by the current into a water-covered field. The two children were unable to escape the truck; their bodies were found days later after extensive searches of the area, which received about 259 millimetres of rain in a single night.

The family alleges Colton’s death was “preventable,” saying the province and municipality were negligent because they didn’t have adequate policies and procedures to issue alerts properly, and that authorities failed to set up roadblocks to prohibit travel along Route 14 during the flooding.

The lawsuit also alleges the province didn’t have “any or enough flood-risk mapping that could have been used by officials,” and “negligently delegated responsibility for … mapping to local governments.”

The municipality failed to adequately train local officials in preparing alerts, and didn’t have “enough people available” to request and send alerts, the family alleges.

The lawsuit against Nova Scotia is one of several actions being taken in the wake of climate disasters across Canada.

In British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, a class action against the City of Abbotsford was recently certified by the courts for alleged damage resulting from catastrophic flooding on the Sumas Prairie in November 2021, which destroyed livestock, fields and buildings.

The plaintiffs claim flooding happened because the city failed “to close the flood boxes at the Barrowtown Pump Station,” with the city rejecting that as a cause for the damage. None of the claims in the lawsuit have been proven in court.

Law firm Slater Vecchio LLP has also filed a class-action lawsuit against two railways and the attorney general of Canada “for their roles in causing and failing to mitigate” the wildfire that destroyed the interior B.C. town of Lytton on June 30, 2021.

Sam Jaworski, a Vancouver-based lawyer with Slater Vecchio, said legal actions against governments face significant hurdles.

“Suing government can be tricky …. Government is immune (to) civil liability for pure policy decisions,” he explained. “However, government can be liable in civil law for operational failures.”

In the case involving the Sumas Prairie, the plaintiffs are alleging the City of Abbotsford “failed to follow its own protocols” at the pumping station in a way that would keep the floodwaters out of the area, Jaworski said. The plaintiffs have to prove that protocols were breached and that the breach caused the harm, he added.

The lawyer said the likelihood of more cases being brought against governments for negligent climate emergency response may depend on the numbers of people whose lives and properties are damaged, as they can pool their resources for class actions.

However, he added, “when desperate people have their livelihoods destroyed by climate disaster … they’re looking for some actor to hold accountable. You can’t sue God.”

Jocelyn Stacey, a law professor at the University of British Columbia, said in an interview Wednesday that she expects climate-related lawsuits will become more common. “People are experiencing huge losses whenever these floods and wildfires happen,” she said.

Stacey also said “badly outdated” provincial emergency measures laws need to be reformed, building in greater accountability and public reviews after emergencies.

She said this reform, alongside court actions, could give those who suffer losses in climate disasters more information about what went wrong in the planning response, and what is being done to make improvements.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2024.

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Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title

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BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.

The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.

It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.

His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.

Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.

He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.

Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.

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

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout

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VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.

The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.

The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.

The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.

The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.

MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.

In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.

“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.

“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”

In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.

“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.

The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.

“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”

The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.

The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.

A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.

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

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost

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The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.

Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.

Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.

Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.

“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.

“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”

Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.

“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.

Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.

“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”

But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.

Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.

“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.

Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.

The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.

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

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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