Woman faces fraud charges after theft from Nova Scotia premier’s riding association

PICTOU, N.S. – A Nova Scotia excavation company has been fined $80,000 after a worker died when scaffolding collapsed on one of its job sites.

In a decision released Wednesday, a Nova Scotia provincial court judge in Pictou, N.S., found the failure by Blaine MacLane Excavation Ltd. to ensure scaffolding was properly installed led to the 2020 death of Jeff MacDonald, a self-employed electrician.

The sentence was delivered after the excavation company was earlier found guilty of an infraction under the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Judge Bryna Hatt said in her decision she found the company “failed in its duty” to ensure that pins essential to the scaffolding’s stability were present at the work site.

Her decision said MacDonald was near the top of the structure when it collapsed on Dec. 9, 2020, though the exact height is unknown.

The judge said that though the excavation company did not own the scaffolding present on its job site, there was no evidence the company took steps to prevent injury, which is required under legislation.

MacDonald’s widow testified during the trial that she found her husband’s body at the job site after he didn’t pick up their children as planned and she couldn’t get in touch with him over the phone.

Julie MacDonald described in her testimony how she knew her husband had died upon finding him due to her nursing training, and that she waited alone in the dark for emergency responders to arrive after calling for help.

“My words cannot express how tragic this accident was for her, the children, and their extended family,” Hatt wrote in the sentencing decision.

“No financial penalty will undo the damage and harm that has been done, or adequately represent the loss of Mr. MacDonald to his family, friends, and our community.”

In addition to the $80,000 fine, the New Glasgow-based company must also pay a victim-fine surcharge of $12,000 and provide $8,000 worth of community service to non-profits in Pictou County.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.

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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Investigators found the remains of a 77-year-old American man on Wednesday at the scene of a fire that destroyed a hotel in western Newfoundland on the weekend.

Eugene Earl Spoon, a guest at the hotel, was visiting Newfoundland from Kansas. His remains were found Wednesday morning during a search of the debris left behind after the fire tore through the Driftwood Inn in Deer Lake, N.L., on Saturday, the RCMP said in a news release.

“RCMP (Newfoundland and Labrador) extends condolences to the family and friends of the missing man,” the news release said.

Spoon was last seen Friday evening in the community of about 4,800 people in western Newfoundland. The fire broke out early Saturday morning, the day Spoon was reported missing.

Several crews from the area fought the flames for about 16 hours before the final hot spot was put out, and police said Wednesday that investigators are still going through the debris.

Meanwhile, the provincial Progressive Conservative Opposition reiterated its call for a wider review of what happened.

“Serious questions have been raised about the fire, and the people deserve answers,” Tony Wakeham, the party’s leader, said in a news release Wednesday. “A thorough investigation must be conducted to determine the cause and prevent such tragedies in the future.”

The party has said it spoke to people who escaped the burning hotel, and they said alarm and sprinkler systems did not seem to have been activated during the fire. However, Stephen Rowsell, the Deer Lake fire chief, has said there were alarms going off when crews first arrived.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Researchers out of Alaska say some polar bears in the Arctic now face a greater risk of contracting several pathogens that weren’t a threat to the animals decades ago.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One, says the bear population in the Chukchi Sea between Alaska and Siberia doesn’t appear to be harmed by the illnesses, but the findings are among the most rapid changes for such exposures ever reported among polar bears.

The study released on Wednesday says it highlights the need for increased surveillance of the polar bear population, including to see if the pathogens remain in flesh that could be consumed by people.

Researchers compared blood samples taken from the area’s bears from 1987 to 1994 and compared them with samples taken from 2008 to 2017.

The report says they found statistically significant increases in pathogens related to five illnesses, with the highest being a parasite found in many common animals including cattle, goats, wolves and foxes, which jumped from 13.7 per cent exposure to 65 per cent.

Lead author Karyn Rode, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center, says the increase in that parasite may be linked to decreasing sea ice that forces bears to spend more time on land.

“As sea ice loss has occurred, polar bears in the population that we’ve studied specifically have increasingly summered on land, and also females in this population den on land,” she says.

“So, females are spending more time on land than males do, and females had higher exposure to some pathogens that were terrestrially based. So, that sort of does follow the path of: there’s been environmental change, specifically for polar bears, that’s changed their behaviour, that’s changed their exposure.”

Rode says the findings suggest it’s not just polar bears that are being exposed to an increase in pathogens, but also the animals that they eat.

In Arctic communities, she says the polar bear is hunted for its meat.

“I think it just goes along with a lot of other literature that there are changes in pathogen transmission pathways. And these are pathogens that we know can cause disease in wildlife and in humans.”

She says the study emphasizes the need for greater surveillance.

The study looked at whether bears had been exposed to pathogens, she notes, not whether high levels remained in the flesh that could be consumed by people.

“The next step is to try to better understand what is the risk to people who are consuming them,” Rode says.

“People have gotten some of these diseases from other wildlife, so it can happen. We don’t know if polar bears have it in their tissues that’s being consumed in a way that could be transmitted.”

She says that will be the next step to be studied.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.