‘Not going to play their games’: Singh won’t help Tories, Bloc topple the Liberals

QUEBEC – The Quebec government has named Lesley Hill as the province’s new youth protection director, after her predecessor stepped down earlier this week amid a number of scandals plaguing the agency.

Hill is a longtime youth services worker who served on the Laurent Commission, a public inquiry that examined the state of the province’s youth protection system following the killing of a seven-year-old girl from Granby, Que., in 2019.

The Coalition Avenir Québec government has been in turmoil since a story emerged last week that nine educators at a Montreal youth detention facility were suspended or fired after having had sexual contact with five minors.

That’s in addition to a youth protection agency in the Mauricie region in central Quebec that was placed under trusteeship in October, after it was accused of taking children away too quickly from their parents.

On Monday, former provincial director Catherine Lemay stepped down at the behest of Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant.

Hill is expected to meet reporters at a news conference in Quebec City with Carmant on Thursday morning.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VANCOUVER – A British Columbia judge has granted an injunction stopping a woman’s medically assisted death, the day before it was scheduled to take place in Vancouver.

The injunction granted on Saturday to the woman’s common-law partner prevents Dr. Ellen Wiebe or any other medical professional from helping end the life of the 53-year-old Alberta woman within 30 days.

The court application by the woman’s partner says she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder but later became convinced she had “akathisia” — an inability to stay still — and began exploring medical assistance in dying.

It says medical professionals told her the condition was “treatable” and “transitory” and could be managed, and she was unable to obtain approval for assistance to die in Alberta.

The application says she then found Wiebe, and that the Vancouver-based doctor breached her statutory duty by approving assistanced in dying for a condition that does not qualify, while failing to review the patient’s medical history or conduct a full health assessment.

None of the allegations have been proven in court and Wiebe declined a request for comment by The Canadian Press.

Justice Simon R. Coval says in his reasons for granting the injunction that it was “clearly a situation of extreme irreparable harm.”

Coval says there is an “arguable case” about whether the assistance in dying criteria were properly applied in the case of the woman, who was granted anonymity by the court.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

OTTAWA – Global Affairs Canada says it is aware of the death of a Canadian citizen in Russia.

But the department won’t confirm reports the Canadian was among four foreign fighters who had crossed into Russia to fight for Ukraine.

The Globe and Mail reported today that four foreigners, including at least one Canadian, were killed on Sunday in a firefight in Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine.

Asked about the report, a spokesperson with Global Affairs would only say the federal government is aware of the death of a Canadian and that it offers its condolences to family and friends of the deceased.

Russia’s embassy in Canada forwarded The Canadian Press a statement from Russia’s security service saying “four saboteurs” were killed by border agents and soldiers in the Bryansk region on Sunday.

The statement says the four killed were in possession of “foreign-made weaponry” and personal items, including a Canadian flag and a prayer book written in Polish.

It added that one of the soldiers killed had a tattoo suggesting he had been a member of a U.S. army parachute regiment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.