Nova Scotia man charged with child pornography after sex doll seized at border

HALIFAX – The lawyer for a homeless man who died at a Halifax encampment is arguing in court today that his client’s welfare payments should have been as high as those received by people with permanent housing.

Vince Calderhead, a human rights lawyer, originally represented Lowe in an unsuccessful bid last Dec. 7 to have the man’s monthly payment from the Department of Community Services raised.

Lowe was living in a tent in a city park at the time and argued he should have been eligible for $950 monthly — the standard rate for people with disabilities living in a household — rather than the $380 for “essentials” paid to a person without a home.

The 30-year-old died on Dec. 15 at another tent encampment that he was visiting, and an appeal board dismissed his case four days later.

However, Calderhead is seeking a judicial review before the Nova Scotia Supreme Court on behalf of Lowe’s estate, arguing that Lowe’s tent was a form of “accommodation” under the legislation.

The lawyer says Lowe’s family continued with the case in order to recover retroactive payments, and in hopes a court victory could influence future decisions on income assistance available to homeless people.

The Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia estimated this month that there were almost 1,300 homeless people in Halifax.

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

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A coalition of Canadian environmental groups has lost its latest bid to prevent Alaska’s salmon fishery from being labelled as sustainable by an international certification body.

The groups — including the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Watershed Watch Salmon Society — say an adjudicator has upheld the Marine Stewardship Council’s decision to certify the Alaskan fishery despite what they call “unsustainable” fishing practices that intercept British Columbia’s migrating salmon.

However, Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game says it is pleased that the adjudicator “affirmed the sustainability of Alaska’s fishing practices” based on “sound science,” adding that the salmon fishery in question “has the most robust and comprehensive” assessment program on the Pacific seaboard.

The Canadian groups filed a joint objection to the Marine Stewardship Council certification in April, saying the assessment “significantly underestimates” the impact of Alaskan troll fishing on salmon populations in British Columbia as well as possible effects on endangered Southern Resident killer whales that feed on the fish.

Adjudicator Melanie Carter says in her decision that certifiers at the council “double-checked” that the Alaskan fishery is managed in accordance to provisions in the Pacific Salmon Treaty between Canada and the United States.

Carter’s decision says that additional analyses also determined the catch shares in Alaska “are sufficiently low as to satisfy certification requirements.”

“On the evidence before me, I can see that the (certifiers) considered the best available data relative to the standard and rationally concluded that the available data were sufficient for evaluation purposes,” the decision says in siding with the council’s decision to certify the fishery.

Aaron Hill, executive director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society, says that while his colleagues are “disappointed” with the decision, they were also “not surprised” given what he describes as the council’s procedures for dealing with objections heavily “in favour of the fishing industry.”

“It’s pretty hard to get a win on these kinds of things, but we had to try because we just so fundamentally disagree with the idea that the southeast Alaska salmon fishery should be given a sustainable label,” Hill says.

He says many net fisheries in southeast Alaska are not reporting bycatch of non-target species — which could include chinook and steelhead from B.C. — and are not required to return the unintentionally caught fish to the sea alive.

“They’re dead when they hit the water,” Hill says. “It’s just ridiculous that a fishery that’s given this Marine Stewardship Council blue check mark is throwing 100 per cent of their bycatch back dead and not reporting the numbers.”

Alaska Department of Fish and Game policy adviser Dani Evenson says in a written response that the state government “carefully monitors catches and escapements” to make sure fisheries comply with a number of policies including the Pacific Salmon Treaty and the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Evenson says fish stocks are managed “to sustain salmon populations into the future.”

“Southeast Alaska has the most robust and comprehensive stock and fishery assessment program on the Pacific seaboard,” the response says. “This includes high fishery sampling rates, scientifically defensible escapement monitoring programs, and juvenile salmon wild tagging programs.

Tagging programs are rare on the Pacific coast, and the results provide valuable insights into freshwater and marine survival, as well as greater determination on where and when stocks are caught, the statement says.

When contacted for comment about the decision, the Marine Stewardship Council said it is working on a response.

Hill says the ultimate goal for his group and others making the objection is for the Pacific Salmon Treaty to be reformed in order to reduce “interception fisheries.”

In the meantime, he is calling on consumers to not rely on the Marine Stewardship Council’s blue check mark to determine whether the salmon they buy is sustainably produced.

“That’s true that they are abiding by the treaty, but the treaty doesn’t prevent them from overfishing our depleted fish stocks,” Hill says.

“In order for the Alaskans to come to the table and make those changes, we need to make it worth their while. And to do that, our next step is to just increase our efforts to go directly to consumers, to let them know that they shouldn’t be buying Alaskan salmon until these changes are made.”

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

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OTTAWA – New Democrats will not cave to demands from the Bloc Québécois and Conservative leaders to help them bring down the Liberal government, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday.

His party is now all that stands between Justin Trudeau’s Liberals and an early election, with the other two opposition parties pledging to try to topple the minority government at the next opportunity.

On Tuesday, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said he will make good on his threat to work with the other opposition parties to bring the Liberals down with a non-confidence vote.

The Conservatives and Bloc together do not have enough MPs to do that if the Liberals and NDP vote together.

Singh said he’s not going to “play their games.”

“I will not let Pierre Poilievre, the ‘king cut,’ or the Bloc call the shots,” said Singh, who appeared to debut a new nickname for the Conservative leader on Wednesday.

Singh said he doesn’t support the Liberals and insisted his party is ready for an election campaign whenever the time comes, but he’s not going to make that happen unless he feels it will help Canadians.

“We’ll look at any bill that comes forward, any motion that comes forward, and if it’s going to help people with these difficult times, we’ll look at that,” he said.

The Conservatives have already made two attempts to bring down the minority government this fall with a pair of non-confidence motions. Both motions failed, and did not get support from the NDP or the Bloc.

Blanchet last month gave the Liberals a deadline to pass two pieces of legislation, one aimed at old age security and the other at protecting supply management, in order to avoid an election before Christmas.

When the Liberals did not meet that deadline on Tuesday, Blanchet said the House is now in serious danger of falling in the next non-confidence vote.

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

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