Nova Scotia’s justice minister says the RCMP owes the public an explanation for a high-speed chase that played out in Halifax during heavy traffic and an armed raid at an apartment that happened just as students were being dismissed from a nearby high school.
A federal RCMP investigation became very public Wednesday as unmarked police cars cut across traffic-filled roads and sidewalks before crashing into the car they were chasing near Joseph Howe Drive, a busy arterial road in the city. At the same time, armed RCMP officers raided an apartment building near a high school in Bedford.
The Mounties have provided few details, other than to say it was all part of an operation targeting organized crime and drugs and that arrests have been made.
Justice Minister Mark Furey, who was a member of the RCMP for 32 years, wasn’t impressed.
A car crashed into a power pole on Elliott Street in Halifax on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020, after a police chase with RCMP members. (CBC)
“I’m concerned, so certainly the public concern is warranted and it, quite frankly, deserves an explanation, and these are discussions that I will advance with RCMP senior managers,” he said in an interview with CBC News.
While Furey didn’t know what led up to the pictures and videos that have circulated widely online from the chase, he recalled the force’s policy not permitting chases in unmarked vehicles and for chases to be abandoned if there is a risk to public safety.
“There are clear policies when it comes to high-speed pursuits and pursuits that don’t have that element of high speed,” said Furey. “And there’s a supervisory role when public safety could be put at risk or compromised; the senior officer has a responsibility to cease that pursuit.”
The province has “a gangs and guns problem,” said Furey. His government has spent a lot of money in recent years trying to provide police the tools they need to address that problem and he supports their efforts.
But Furey also said it is “critically important as they do that work that they recognize the broader element of public safety, in that we would not want to be doing anything that’s going to put public safety at risk, whether it’s students in school communities or pedestrians in the Joseph Howe circumstances.”
Police arrest a man on Elliott Street in Halifax on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020, after a car chase ended on the west-end street. (Craig Paisley/CBC)
Furey said the events of Wednesday have him reaching out to law enforcement leaders across the province with the RCMP and municipal forces to remind them of how important strong community communication is. While police can’t always share all of their information with the public, Furey said the community is owed as much transparency as possible.
“There are circumstances where we see strong communications and there’s strong outcomes,” he said. “When there’s poor communications, there are poor outcomes, there’s a lack of transparency and accountability.”
RCMP transparency in Nova Scotia has been criticized this year, largely because of how public communication related to the investigation of last spring’s mass shooting was handled. A situation like Wednesday doesn’t help, either, said Furey.
“My experience has been that when you engage the public, you get constructive outcomes, you build relationships,” he said. “That’s a challenge that we’re facing right now; that’s a challenge that the law enforcement community is facing not only here in Nova Scotia, but across the country and continent.”
Officers raided an apartment building near Charles P. Allen High School just as the school was letting out for the day. (Submitted by Angela Guptill)
Although there have been concerted efforts to engage Black and First Nations communities in an effort to improve communications, Furey said there is a need for broader efforts to ensure the public has confidence and trust in law enforcement.
“I see every day police officers in our communities engaging youth — they’re in our schools, they’re problem solving with youth and families and schools and educators. There’s lots of good work happening,” he said.
“But it’s these types of incidents and social media — public awareness through social media — that raise the level of concern of residents and we have to address that. We need our uniformed officers to understand the optics that it presents and the concerns that Nova Scotians have.”
Although it’s not driven by any recent events or criticism, Furey said he’s initiated talks within his department about provincial policing service models. The Police Act allows for the creation of a provincial force.
Provincial policing review initiated
Furey said the issue at hand is labour issues within the RCMP, the fact membership has become the largest police labour group in the country, and rising contract costs that are becoming increasingly difficult for municipalities to afford.
Policing is the largest line item for most, if not all, municipalities in the province, said Furey, and many are concerned about the sustainability of it. His department has periodically done policing reviews at the request of municipalities looking at alternatives to the RCMP because of the growing costs of the contract.
“With the labour circumstances within the RCMP, it’s only prudent that the minister responsible for policing in the province would look to this as an area that requires attention and work, because the discussion will continue with municipalities,” he said.
Furey said there is no timeline for the review. There is an existing contract between the provincial government and RCMP that runs until 2032.
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
