Manitoba agency penalizes landlord after tenants say they were ousted on short notice

HALIFAX – At his swearing-in ceremony Wednesday morning, Don MacLean, the Halifax police force’s first Black permanent chief, paid tribute to the African Nova Scotian officers who came before him.

Speaking to a room of past and present Halifax police and RCMP officers, city councillors, and members of the board of police commissioners, MacLean spoke of the Black officers who “paved the way” for him to lead the force — but who didn’t get the same opportunities he did.

Officers, he said, “whose experiences were simply not the same as mine.”

Later, speaking with reporters, he acknowledged the strained relationship between police and the city’s Black community — residents who have not been treated the same as others. He said he hoped his new role will inspire the next generation of African Nova Scotians.

“Opportunity looks different to different folks,” he said, and seeing a Black chief of police “opens up a world that is something you may not have thought of.”

MacLean’s swearing-in ceremony comes one month after the commander of Nova Scotia’s RCMP apologized for the use of street checks, which are now banned. The practice, also known as carding, involved police randomly stopping citizens to record their personal information and store it electronically.

In 2019, a provincially commissioned study revealed Black people in Nova Scotia were five times more likely to be stopped for street checks than were white citizens. MacLean’s predecessor, Daniel Kinsella, issued an apology for the practice when the report was first published.

MacLean became acting police chief in September 2023 when Kinsella retired. During his tenure, MacLean lead the force while it handled an increased volume of protests in Halifax, a growing unhoused population, and a shooting at the Africville family reunion where five people were injured.

When Kinsella announced his retirement, some members of the Black community expressed concerns that a change in Halifax’s police leadership wouldn’t improve relations with the city’s African Nova Scotian community. But with MacLean now permanently leading the force, one Black leader said she’s hopeful “Donny” will bring much needed change.

“Donny has certainly put his time in as a police officer and risen through the ranks,” Bernadette Hamilton-Reid, the executive director of the African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition, said in an interview Wednesday afternoon.

She added that MacLean understands the Black community, its roots, its needs and its struggles, a knowledge she said will help address systemic issues like high incarceration rates and racial profiling Black people face when they are driving cars or shopping in stores.

“We’re hoping he will have open eyes to that and work with us and work with the community to (address systemic problems) because now he’s coming in with our cultural lens,” she said.

Hamilton-Reid said MacLean’s new role sets a significant precedent. “It always shows that people think that people of African ancestry are not able to hold leadership roles. So this certainly shows to the city, the municipality, the province, and the country that we do have people that can hold these roles,” she said.

Having assumed the permanent role on Aug. 12, MacLean said his priorities include improving public safety and police wellness, recruiting and retaining more officers, and building community relationships. MacLean is a lifelong resident of Halifax and has been with the police force for 31 years.

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

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TORONTO – Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday that the federal government is moving ahead with guidelines around sustainable investing and corporate climate disclosures, but details on the plans are scarce.

The move comes as a wide range of investors, asset managers and environmental groups have been pushing the government to roll out such guidelines, also known as green taxonomies, to attract more investment for emissions-reducing projects.

The federal government estimates achieving net-zero emissions in Canada by 2050 will require between $125 billion and $140 billion in annual investments, compared with current spending of between $15 billion and $25 billion.

“We know we need to pull in even more private capital. We need to crowd in even more private capital to have a transition happening at the pace and scale the climate requires,” said Freeland at a Principles for Responsible Investment conference in Toronto.

Frustration has been mounting as efforts to create sustainable investment guidelines to attract more capital have been in the works for years in Canada, with multiple groups tasked with creating recommendations, but still nothing firm in place.

Those looking for answers will, however, have to wait a little longer, as the government says it plans to have a third-party organization develop the taxonomy, with the first guidelines issued within a year of the organization beginning its work. It did not provide a time estimate as to how quickly the unnamed organization would get started.

On the potential inclusion of fossil fuels — a key area of contention — the government says it doesn’t anticipate new natural gas production would qualify, but that drafters could consider existing natural gas for its potential to displace more polluting fuels internationally.

Environmental groups have been adamant that fossil fuels have no place in such a taxonomy. But a task force that provided recommendations to the government argued there should be a transition category that will allow for efforts to reduce emissions of fossil fuel production and other high-emission industries.

The government says the transition taxonomy could for example include projects that significantly reduce the emissions of existing natural gas production, or the emissions associated with a limited build-out of existing production sites.

On company disclosures, the government says it will launch a regulatory process to figure out what information, and what size of private federal corporations, will be included.

Freeland emphasized that small and medium businesses would not be subject to such disclosures, but that it’s important for there to be greater corporate climate transparency.

“We know that requiring these disclosures is the right thing for businesses, it’s the right thing for their lenders, it’s the right thing for their insurers, It’s the right thing for their shareholders,” said Freeland.

“Requiring disclosures means people can make decisions based on transparency and understanding of climate risks and climate exposure.”

Speaking after Freeland at the conference, Mark Carney, the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and chair of Brookfield Asset Management, emphasized the need to act faster on all fronts.

While Freeland highlighted that the taxonomy plan, with its uncommon transition category, is a made-in-Canada solution, Carney said it’s important governments implement taxonomies that aren’t too out of step with what other countries are doing.

He also emphasized the importance of going beyond emissions disclosure to also mandate that companies say how they plan to reach net zero.

“Governments should act now by adopting consistent and comparable taxonomies, and mandating transition plans for large companies.”

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

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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.