Nova Scotia’s waiting list for family care dips about 15,000 people, to 145,144

VANCOUVER – Elections BC says more than a million British Columbians have already cast their ballots in advance voting before Saturday’s provincial election, smashing a record set during the pandemic election four years ago.

The elections body says 1,001,331 people have voted, representing more than 28 per cent of all registered electors and putting the province on track for big overall turnout.

They include about 223,000 people who voted on the final day of advance voting on Wednesday, the last of six days of advance polls, shattering the one-day record set just a day earlier by more than 40,000 votes.

The previous record for advance voting in a B.C. election was set in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when about 670,000 people voted early, representing about 19 per cent of registered voters.

Some ridings have already seen turnout of more than 35 per cent, including in NDP Leader David Eby’s Vancouver-Point Grey riding where 36.5 per cent of all electors have voted.

There has also been big turnout in some Vancouver Island ridings, including Oak Bay — Gordon Head, where 39 per cent of electors have voted, and Victoria — Beacon Hill, where Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau is running, with 37.2 per cent.

Advance voter turnout in B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad’s riding of Nechako Lakes was 30.5 per cent.

Total turnout in 2020 was 54 per cent, down from about 61 per cent in 2017.

Stewart Prest, a political-science lecturer at the University of British Columbia, said many factors are at play in the advance voter turnout.

“If you have an early option, if you have an option where there are fewer crowds, fewer lineups that you have to deal with, then that’s going to be a much more desirable option,” said Prest.

“So, having the possibility of voting across multiple advanced voting days is something that more people are looking to as a way to avoid last-minute lineups or heavy weather.”

Voters along the south coast of British Columbia who have not cast their ballots yet will have to contend with heavy rain and high winds from an incoming atmospheric river weather system on election day.

Environment Canada says the weather system will bring prolonged heavy rain to Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Whistler and Vancouver Island starting Friday.

The dramatic downfall of the Official Opposition BC United Party and voter frustration could also be contributing to the size of the advance vote, said Prest, citing “uncertainty about the B.C. Conservative Party as an alternative.”

But Prest said it’s too early to say if the province is experiencing a “renewed enthusiasm for voting” or not.

“As a political scientist, I think it would be a good thing to see, but I’m not ready to conclude that’s what we are seeing just yet,” he said, adding “this is one of the storylines to watch come Saturday.”

Overall turnout in B.C. elections has generally been dwindling compared with the 71.5 per cent turnout for the 1996 vote.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said more than 180,000 voters cast their votes on Wednesday.

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TORONTO – Ontario’s top court has ordered a new hearing for a youth-led constitutional challenge of the provincial government’s emissions target.

The Ontario Court of Appeal’s ruling sends the case back to the lower court for a new hearing. It found the lower court judge’s analysis was flawed on some key points and the case raised important issues that should be considered afresh.

Ecojustice, an environmental law charity that backed the young people who brought the challenge, called it a landmark victory.

“The seven youth are optimistic and will push forward with the new hearing, with all the urgency the climate crisis demands,” the charity said in a written statement.

The case is the first in Canada to consider whether governments’ approach to climate change has the potential to violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Appeal Court decision lays a “solid foundation” for the young people to win in a new hearing before the lower court, said Stepan Wood, a professor at the University of British Columbia.

“This unanimous decision is a major victory for Canadian children and youth who are seeking to hold governments accountable for their contributions to climate change,” Wood, a Canada Research Chair in law, society and sustainability, said in a written reaction to the decision.

“It establishes that, where a government makes a statutory commitment to combat climate change (as the federal government and all provincial and territorial governments have done), it must implement that commitment in a way that complies with the Charter of Rights.”

At stake was an emissions target that dates back to when Premier Doug Ford’s then-newly elected Progressive Conservative government repealed the law underpinning Ontario’s cap-and-trade system for lowering emissions.

The government scrapped the system and replaced the emissions target in that law — 37 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030 — with a new target of 30 per cent below 2005 levels.

The young people argued the weakened target committed Ontario to dangerously high levels of greenhouse gases, knowing it would cause harm to the province’s youth and future generations, in violation of the Charter.

They brought evidence to suggest the revised target would allow for 30 megatonnes more in annual emissions by 2030, equivalent to the annual emissions of about seven million passenger vehicles, or nearly 200 megatonnes from 2018 to 2030.

The Ontario Superior Court, however, decided that the case was ultimately about the government’s alleged inaction. It’s not that the province’s target increased emissions, as the young people argued, but that it allegedly did not go far enough to reduce them.

In its decision, the court said the applicants were trying to impose a “freestanding” obligation on the province to fight climate change.

The Appeal Court disagreed. Ontario voluntarily made a statutory commitment to combat climate change, its ruling said.

“The question is whether the application judge should have considered whether Ontario’s alleged failure to comply with its statutory obligation violated the appellants’ Charter rights,” the decision read.

The case is part of a wave of cases in Canada and abroad asking courts to take a more active role in overseeing governments’ climate plans.

The top court in the Netherlands ruled in 2019 that the government had a duty to protect citizens from the potentially devastating effects of climate change, and upheld lower court decisions ordering the government to further cut its emissions.

Thursday’s decision was also being closely watched by lawyers in another youth-led Charter challenge of the federal government’s overall climate plan, currently before the Federal Court.

“It’s going to be a very important decision,” said Catherine Boies Parker, a lawyer for the applicants in the federal case, in anticipation of the ruling.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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OTTAWA – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says it’s very disturbing that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre won’t get the top-level security clearance needed to view classified documents on foreign interference.

Singh said party leaders need to be briefed on top-secret information, noting the allegations this week that Indian agents played a role in the extortion, coercion and murder of Canadian citizens on Canadian soil.

“You’ve got these serious allegations that a foreign government literally hired gangs in Canada to go out and shoot up people’s homes and people’s businesses, Canadians’ lives are put at risk. Does that sound like the response of a leader who’s taking it seriously, who actually is concerned about safety?” Singh said at a press conference in Toronto on Thursday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a public inquiry into foreign interference on Wednesday that he has the names of past and present Conservative parliamentarians and candidates who are linked to foreign interference. Trudeau also said other party members, including Liberals, have also been flagged.

“I have the names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and-or candidates in the Conservative Party of Canada who are engaged (in) or at high risk of, or for whom there is clear intelligence around foreign interference,” Trudeau said.

Poilievre shot back, accusing the prime minister of lying under oath, and saying he should release the names.

“If Justin Trudeau has evidence to the contrary, he should share it with the public. Now that he has blurted it out in general terms at a commission of inquiry — he should release the facts. But he won’t — because he is making it up,” Poilievre said in a statement on Wednesday.

Poilievre said he received a briefing from top security officials on Oct. 14 concerning the alleged Indian foreign interference, adding that the CSIS Act allows the government to warn Canadians about specific foreign interference risks without them first being sworn to secrecy.

Additionally, Poilievre said his chief of staff receives confidential briefings, and neither he nor government officials have told the Opposition leader about any Conservative parliamentarian knowingly taking part in foreign inference.

Singh said that’s not good enough for him.

“I want to look at the information myself. I don’t want to outsource that to someone else. If it’s something impacting my party and I’m the leader of my party, I want to make sure I want to know what’s going on,” Singh said.

Singh said he also wants to see the names released in a way that doesn’t compromise national security laws.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May also has the necessary security clearance to view top-secret documents and echoed the call for Poilievre to do the same.

“The only way for Canadians to know that the Official Opposition has not been compromised through foreign interference is for its leader to seek and obtain top secret security clearance. I have urged him to do so since June 2024. With greater urgency, I urge him to do so now,” May said in a statement.

She made reference to the public version of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians report on foreign interference released in the spring, which flagged alleged attempts by India to interfere in a Conservative leadership race.

“Pierre Poilievre is the only person in a position to clear the air about the Conservative party and any potential favours owed to foreign interest,” May said.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet has said he intends to get security clearance to review the documents. His press secretary Joanie Riopel said Blanchet is in the final stages of receiving that approval.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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