HALIFAX —
Nova Scotia’s premier deflected several questions Wednesday regarding drunk-driving charges he faced in 2005, saying he was sorry for bad decisions he made as a young man when alcohol was a big part of his life.
Iain Rankin confirmed for the first time Monday he had been convicted of impaired driving in 2003 when he was 20 years old, and he also revealed he faced impaired-driving charges in 2005 but was eventually cleared of those allegations.
During a news conference Wednesday, the 38-year-old premier did not answer when reporters repeatedly asked if he had been drinking or was drunk on July 25, 2005, when a breathalyzer test in the Halifax suburb of Bedford led to charges.
Instead, he apologized for his actions and mentioned the 2003 conviction. He briefly referred to the second case, saying the matter had been dismissed in court.
“As someone who was very young, it’s regrettable that I have to relive that experience right now,” he said. “I thought it was important to tell all Nova Scotians at the same time about the (2003) charge I have on my record. I’ve always been forthcoming about that charge. In 2005, I had something that was dismissed in court.”
In the first case, Rankin was convicted on Sept. 5, 2003, of driving with a blood-alcohol content in excess of 0.08. He was fined $1,200 and banned from driving for a year.
In 2005, he was again charged with driving over the legal blood-alcohol limit and he faced a separate impaired-driving charge. He was found guilty on the impaired-driving charge and was sentenced to 14 days in weekend custody and banned from driving for two years.
But the conviction was overturned on appeal, and a new trial was ordered on Jan. 9, 2007. The charge was dismissed on April 19, 2007, when the Crown offered no evidence to support its case. The province’s Public Prosecution Service said in an email it would be improper to say why the case was dropped.
On Wednesday, as speculation mounted about an imminent provincial election call, Rankin was repeatedly pressed to explain whether he was intoxicated before his 2005 arrest.
“I made some bad decisions in my early 20s,” he said.
“I’m 38 right now, and I think that this office needs to have someone that has integrity and honesty, and I’ve done that ΓǪ I regret that alcohol was a big part of my life in my early 20s. I’ve moved on and I’ve lived a more safe lifestyle since (I was) in my 30s. I’m about to become a father in November.”
When asked if he would follow Saskatchewan’s lead and require all Liberal candidates to publicly disclose any previous criminal convictions, Rankin said he would consider it.
In July 2020, the governing Saskatchewan Party revealed that six of its candidates running in the fall election had previous convictions for drunk driving. Four of them were members of the legislature, including Premier Scott Moe. And the province’s New Democrats disclosed that five of their candidates also had impaired-driving convictions, and one was convicted of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
Rankin said he had previously disclosed his run-ins with the law to the Nova Scotia Liberal party. On Monday, he said he decided to publicly disclose those details because his office had received inquiries that morning about both cases. “Obviously, there was a record of my past, and it was known,” he said Wednesday. “It’s just more broadly known now.”
Meanwhile, the province’s Opposition Progressive Conservatives released a statement Wednesday saying Rankin’s apology has left many questions unanswered. “Rankin stated that he has never hidden this part of his past, but it is clear that he has not been forthcoming with the public,” the statement said.
The Tories are asking the premier to confirm reports alleging he failed two breathalyzer tests on July 25, 2005, and they called on him to release documents he disclosed to the Liberal party when he was nominated as a candidate, joined cabinet and ran for the party’s leadership, which he won in February.
“Iain Rankin staged his apology at a COVID-19 briefing to limit the number of questions he would need to answer about his record,” the Tories said.
“There are many questions outstanding that Nova Scotians deserve to be answered, anything short goes to Rankin’s trustworthiness and poor judgment.”
On another front, Rankin said he was willing to work with Mothers Against Drunk Driving to combat impaired driving. “I’ll do whatever I can do to work with MADD to ensure that we prevent those kind of things from happening in this province,” he said.
On Tuesday, the CEO of MADD Canada said Rankin’s apologies for his impaired-driving conviction must be followed up with action. Andrew Murie said Rankin should follow the examples of Saskatchewan’s Moe and former B.C. premier Gordon Campbell, both of whom responded to revelations about drunk-driving charges by taking a leadership role on the file.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2021.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
