Nova Scotia Premier’s promise to ‘fix health care’ under scrutiny during election campaign – Halifax
Tim Houston was finishing his election victory speech on August…
Nova Scotia Premier’s promise to ‘fix health care’ under scrutiny during election campaign – Halifax
Tim Houston was finishing his election victory speech on August 18, 2021, when Nova Scotia’s premier-designate reiterated a commitment he had made several times during the campaign.
“Over the next four years and beyond…I promise you this: I will give you everything I have to improve health care,” he said, reaffirming the emphasis of progressives— Conservatives on election campaigns. “We can put Nova Scotia on the path to sustainability and repair our health care system. »
Three years later, Houston called an election for November 26, knowing that the vote could be a referendum on whether or not it kept that lofty promise.
Government data shows the Conservatives made some progress in their first term, but fell far short of fixing a system plagued by shortages of doctors and nurses and long wait times for health services. ambulance and emergency.
The provincial Need A Family Practice registry – a key health care indicator – was updated earlier this month for the first time since June, when it reached a record 160,234 people without a doctor family or nurse practitioner.
Although the latest figures indicate a marked improvement, with 145,114 people now on the register, this figure is much higher than in spring 2021, when there were half as many people on the list. And the latest numbers show 16.2 per cent of Nova Scotians were still looking for a primary care provider, well above the government’s target of five per cent and the highest rate high since fiscal year 2021-2022.
Jennifer Benoit, provincial coordinator for the Nova Scotia Health Coalition, a non-profit organization, said significant gaps remain in the system, including wait times and emergency room closures.
“I think we are still in a health crisis,” Benoit said in an interview. “We need to focus on solving these problems… Since Mr. Houston took office, we have seen people die in emergency rooms waiting for care.
Between April 2022 and March 31, 2023, unplanned emergency room closures reached 41,923 hours, an increase of 32% compared to the previous year, according to a government report released last December. Most of these closures were due to staff shortages.
Meanwhile, just 56 percent of ambulance response times met the government’s benchmark this year, compared to 71 percent in summer 2021. And 66 percent of emergency room waiting times met the government’s benchmark. government this year, up slightly from 65 percent. percent in summer 2021, but far from the province’s 90 percent target.
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While it is true that the number of physicians in the province continues to grow, the rate of growth has been outpaced by the province’s population explosion and continued retirements and transfers of physicians. As a result, the number of doctors per 100,000 Nova Scotians fell from 124 in 2021 to 121 this year – again below the government’s target of 135 doctors per 100,000 people.
When it comes to registered nurses, Houston can boast a three-year recruiting drive that went from 196 net new nurses hired in 2021 to 692 hired this year. Yet the vacancy rate for registered nurse jobs remains at 15.4 percent, more than double the government’s target of seven percent.
Meanwhile, Liberals led by Zach Churchill ran online ads with the slogan: “Tim Houston: All the Promises.” No progress.
And on Monday, the first full day of the campaign, New Democrats held a news conference to call attention to Houston’s “failure to solve the health care crisis.”
“Instead of fixing health care…Tim Houston is relying on quick fixes and investing millions of public dollars in apps, tech deals and shady contracts,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said in a statement .
Chender highlighted the case of Hogan Court, a half-finished hotel that Houston’s government planned to turn into a health care facility. Earlier this year, the province’s auditor general said the government failed to do due diligence when it invested about $46 million to buy and renovate the property.
“Meanwhile, Nova Scotians are still grappling with a patchwork of health care options that are difficult to navigate,” Chender said.
Anticipating this kind of criticism, the Conservative government spent $158,000 to distribute 480,000 brochures across the province earlier this month outlining its latest health care initiatives, including the province’s new YourHealthNS app and ActionForHealth.ca website.
“We’ve made a lot of progress over the last three years,” Houston says in the publication. “But we can and will do more to provide Nova Scotians with the best health care possible. »
The publication boasts that the province has hired 300 doctors and specialists, as well as 2,000 nurses.
The government brochure also highlights initiatives to establish a medical school in Cape Breton; increase training opportunities for nurses; provide free courses for paramedics; add more long-term care rooms; expand a major hospital in Halifax; and accelerated accreditation for out-of-province doctors.
On the first day of the last election campaign, Houston revealed the main reason he was running for another term, but it wasn’t health.
Instead, he said he wants to implement a plan to improve affordability and housing. Additionally, he said he wants to enlist the support of Nova Scotians in his ongoing battles with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Nova Scotia needs a government with a new mandate to defend our province,” he said. “Faced with a political crisis… Prime Minister Trudeau made the decision to try to save seats in Ontario and Quebec at the expense of countries like Nova Scotia. »
Ten minutes into his 17-minute speech, the prime minister turned his attention to health care and confirmed that the system is far from fixed.
“We know there is work to do, but we have a track record to build on,” he said before citing the accomplishments listed in the recent brochure. “Nova Scotia finally has a plan that works. »
Benoit, whose advocacy group is primarily supported by public sector unions, said Houston’s government deserves credit for many of the investments made in health care.
“It’s a step forward,” she said. “But we haven’t seen the silver bullet he promised during his last election campaign.”
‘Bob’s Burgers’ Actor Jay Johnston Sentenced to Prison for Role in January 6 Riots – National
Actor Jay Johnstonof Bob’s Burgers And Presenter: The Legend of Ron Burgundy fame, headed to prison for his role in Riot of January 6, 2021 at the United States Capitol.
On Monday, Johnston, 56, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in federal prison. The decision came nearly four months after the actor pleaded guilty to interfering with police officers on duty the day of the riot.
His lawyer told a federal judge that he has been “blacklisted” from Hollywood since the riot.
Jay Johnston approaches the West Lower Terrace Tunnel on January 6, 2021.
US Department of Justice
“It’s a humiliation and a horrible oversight,” Johnston told U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols about his participation in the riot.
He regretted having “made the work of the police more difficult” on January 6. He said he never imagined a riot would break out that day.
“It was because of my own ignorance, I believe,” he told Nichols. “If I had been more political, maybe I could have seen this coming.”
The judge allowed him to remain free after the hearing and to report to jail on a date to be determined. Nichols said he recognizes that Johnston won’t be able to care for his 13-year-old autistic daughter while he’s behind bars.
“But his conduct on January 6 was quite problematic. Truly reprehensible,” the judge said.
Johnston, who is best known for voicing pizzeria owner Jimmy Pesto in the animated film Bob’s Burgerswas arrested last year and charged with one count of civil disorder. He was accused of confronting police officers while they were part of a crowd of Donald Trump supporters, many of whom illegally entered the U.S. Capitol building.
On January 6, 2021, Johnston was photographed among a crowd of rioters gathered in the Lower West Plaza of the U.S. Capitol building, near an area known as the “Tunnel,” according to an earlier press release from the Office of the President. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. .
Jay Johnston holding a Capitol Police shield in the West Lower Terrace Tunnel on January 6, 2021.
US Department of Justice
The authority said the area saw “some of the most violent attacks” on law enforcement during the riot.
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Johnston, who filmed much of the riot on his cell phonestood behind a row of police barricades in the tunnel.
For 40 minutes, rioters attempted to remove the barricades and move closer to the Capitol building.
Johnston was seen facing the crowd of rioters as he pounded his fists and pointed fingers.
Another person in the crowd handed him a riot shield stolen by U.S. Capitol Police. As some rioters called for “a wall of shields,” Johnston held the shield in front of him for a few moments before handing it over.
This image from the Washington Metropolitan Police Department shows actor Jay Johnston, outlined in yellow, at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington.
Department of Justice via AP
As Johnston and others continued to move toward the police line in the tunnel, court documents say a Metropolitan Police officer was crushed between the crowd and a door.
The police were eventually forced to retreat.
Shortly afterwards, Johnston left the tunnel. He did not enter the Capitol building with other rioters.
On Monday, prosecutors recommended an 18-month prison sentence for Johnston. Their sentencing memo includes a photograph of a smiling Johnston dressed as Jacob Chansley, the spear-wielding Capitol rioter known as the “QAnon Shaman,” at a Halloween party about two years after the siege.
“He believes his participation in one of the most serious crimes against our democracy is a joke,” prosecutors wrote.
Before his arrest, Johnston was among hundreds of people wanted by the FBI in connection with the riot. With the help of social media users who recognized Johnston from his numerous television appearances, as well as Johnston’s personal contacts, federal agents were able to make the arrest.
More than 1,500 people have been charged Federal crimes related to the Capitol riots. More than 1,000 rioters were convicted and sentenced. Around 650 of them were sentenced to prison terms ranging from a few days to 22 years.
Johnston is no longer the voice of Jimmy Pesto in Bob’s Burgers. Canadian-American voice actor Eric Bauza has since taken on the role.
Johnston’s acting credits also include the television shows Arrested development, Mr. Show with Bob and David, You better call Saul And The Sarah Silverman Program.
— with files from Global News and The Associated Press
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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As US election polls show tight race, ‘take a breath,’ experts say – National
Opinion polls in the US presidential election show an extremely close race between the US vice president Kamala Harris And Donald Trump – but polling experts say those numbers don’t always tell the whole story.
While pollsters do everything they can to present accurate pictures of how voters feel or intend to vote, new methodologies adapting to modern technology and changing behaviors make the job more difficult in recent years.
Additionally, “polls were not designed to predict the future,” said Samara Klar, a political science professor at the University of Arizona who studies political opinion and polling.
It is therefore more important that people pay less attention to individual polls, which can sometimes be outliers, and more to poll averages – and even rely less on polls to determine which could happen on November 5.
“Breathe,” Klar said.
“People are completely obsessed with the vote right now, trying to figure out what’s going to happen. But we won’t know until (Election Day).”
For decades, surveys consisted of interviewing people over the phone and collecting their opinions.
Pollsters would use census data to target specific households and ensure that the sample size they collect represents the demographics of the overall population, including age, race, income and other factors.
“Getting an election wrong (at the time) was like falling off a boat and missing the water: You would have had to do something really fundamentally wrong,” said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, a large polling company that conducts polls. for Global News and other media.
Today, however, most people don’t answer their phones for surveys and other marketing calls, which are often considered spam. A Pew Research survey found that response rates to telephone surveys fell from 36 percent in 1997 to just 6 percent in 2018.
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This forces pollsters to rely on large online panels. To entice people to sign up, many companies offer potential respondents perks such as gift cards and other prizes.
Despite pollsters’ best efforts, this method makes it more difficult to accurately represent public opinion. Companies will then use what is called “sample weighting” to correct any imbalance between the survey sample and the broader population.
For example, because women are statistically more likely to respond to surveys than menpollsters will weigh down female respondents to increase male representation.
The challenge, Klar says, is that there are different methods for weighing samples, and which one to use depends on each individual fishfinder.
“Do you weigh it just based on demographics, do you factor partisanship into it, do you weigh it based on vote choice in 2020? » she said. “All of these really small choices can really change the results you get in surveys.”
Uncertainties in data can shed light on a poll’s margin of error, which explains how “wrong” a poll might be.
Remarkably, experts and analysts agree that polls generally give election results correct within a few percentage points, including in recent years.
This includes the 2016 US presidential election, although Trump surprised most of the world by winning the electoral college over Hillary Clinton, giving him the presidency.
“The national polls said Hillary Clinton was going to win (the popular vote) by two points, and that’s why she won,” Bricker said.
The problem, he said, is that key battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania were not aligned in these national polls as they might have been in previous elections, and may have be underestimated Trump’s support. Trump’s narrow victories in these and other swing states gave him enough electoral votes to win the White House.
Since then, pollsters have started focusing more on critical states that can swing the Electoral College toward Democrats or Republicans, and polling has improved, Bricker said.
But he acknowledged the risk of overcorrecting mistakes made in 2016, which could overestimate Trump’s support in the 2024 race.
This was arguably the case in the 2022 midterm elections, where polls predicted huge Republican victories in Congress but ultimately gave the party only a narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“It’s a lot harder than before, it’s a lot harder than before, but that doesn’t mean that people who are doing their best and the best technology can’t give good representations of what the outcome will be. ” Bricker said.
As more individual polls are released and analyzed by voters and the media, Bricker said it’s important to remember that “no poll” can tell the story of how a race is going, or even what people feel.
Poll averages can be made more accurate by bringing different polls together and allowing them to balance each other effectively.
Together, these polls likely also captured a broader segment of the population.
Bricker added that no poll can take into account people who only decide at the last minute.
“We’ve seen examples all over the world where 5 to 10 percent of people make up their minds in the voting booth, and that’s impossible to predict,” he said.
As the campaign enters its final days, Bricker said the public should be wary of last-minute polls that show significant movements, one way or another, away from the trend lines that appear in the poll averages.
Klar agreed and said any analysis of individual polling at this late stage was “simply not newsworthy” — which she said is especially true in a race as close as the one between Harris and Trump.
“Frankly, I think an additional challenge for pollsters is that this election is so close and that makes forecasting more difficult,” she said.
However, she added, “we wouldn’t know how close the election is without the ballot.”
As voter behaviors and technology continue to evolve, Bricker said pollsters will continue to keep pace and adapt their methods. It remains to be seen where this will end up – and the current elections will shed light on this development.
“If we are wrong, then we will have another moment of introspection, as we did particularly in 2016,” he said.
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Heidi Klum’s ET Halloween Costume Out of This World – National
Heidi Klum and Janelle Monáe opted for an unusual film Halloween costumes this year – both choosing to dress as the chunky alien for their parties on opposite coasts.
While the similar costumes will likely spark popular debates in celebrity magazines about “who wore it better”, stars chose different interpretations of the creature from Steven Spielberg’s 1982 classic, AND the alien.
(Celebrities didn’t hold back this year – see what others wore for Halloween.)
Klum’s husband, Tom Kaulitz, dressed as ET, while the model and TV personality showed up as Mrs. ET with animatronic eyes, a long neck and a blonde wig. Monáe opted for a stockier version of the little alien, waddling down the red carpet at her Halloween party on Thursday night. The Grammy winner’s ET had animatronic eyes and also sported a yellow index finger, mimicking the film character’s light-up finger.
Tom Kaulitz, left, and Heidi Klum attend Heidi Klum’s 23rd Annual Halloween Party on Thursday, October 31, 2024, at Hard Rock Hotel New York in New York.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Monáe also adopted an otherworldly voice similar to ET’s during Thursday’s interviews. She downplayed any rivalry with Klum, telling the Associated Press: “There can be two Hallo-queens. I love Heidi.
Janelle Monae as ET appears with Jennifer Hudson on “The Jennifer Hudson Show” airing October 31, 2024 in Burbank, California.
Mitch Haddad/WBTV via Getty Images
Klum and Monáe take Halloween seriously, each donning elaborate costumes. This year, their Halloween parties took place on opposite coasts, with Klum gathering famous friends in New York and Monáe throwing her party in Los Angeles.
Klum’s face was in the creature’s neck, allowing it to see and speak. She told the AP that her costume had been in the works for a year.
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“I’ve been a fan of ET since I was 9,” Klum said. As she spoke, the mouth of her costume’s head moved thanks to the mechanical features inside the costume.
Heidi Klum attends the 23rd Annual Heidi Klum Halloween Party on Thursday, October 31, 2024 at the Hard Rock Hotel New York in New York.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
“I love becoming this thing. ET is very small and so I thought it would be fun to play with the proportions too,” Klum said.
Klum and Kaulitz tenderly touched heads after revealing their costumes amid smoke and a light show at Klum’s party.
Monáe showed off her costume ET on Wednesday The Jennifer Hudson Show. She also did an elaborate photo shoot posted to Instagram where she appeared on a bike with ET in a basket in front, an homage to one of the most iconic moments from Spielberg’s film.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
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‘Young Frankenstein’ and ‘Tootsie’ Actress Teri Garr Dies at 79 – National
Teri Garr, the offbeat comedy actor who went from being a background dancer in Elvis Presley films to co-starring in favorites such as Young Frankenstein And Tootsiedied. She was 79 years old.
Garr died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” publicist Heidi Schaeffer said. Garr has battled other health issues in recent years and underwent surgery in January 2007 to repair an aneurysm.
Fans took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes.” I couldn’t have loved him more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul said: “Never the star, but always brilliant. She improved everything she was in.
The actor, sometimes credited as Terri, Terry or Terry Ann during his long career, seemed destined for show business from childhood.
His father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comedian; her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the first Rockettes of New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter started dance lessons at age 6, and by 14 she was dancing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies.
She was 16 when she joined the road company of West Side History in Los Angeles, and by 1963 she began appearing in small roles in films.
She recalled in a 1988 interview how she won the West Side History role. After being excluded from her first audition, she returned a day later in different clothes and was accepted.
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From there, the statuesque, blonde Garr found regular work dancing in films and she appeared in the chorus of nine Presley films, including Live Las Vegas, Tank Top And Clambake.
She has also appeared in numerous television shows, including Star Trek, Dr Kildare And Batmanand was a featured dancer on the rock’n’roll music show Fiestathe TAMI rock concert and an actor from Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.
Her big film break came as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 thriller. The conversation. This led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who said he would hire her for the role of Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant in 1974. Young Frankenstein – if she could speak with a German accent.
“Cher had this German girl, Renata, who made wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once recalled.
The film established her as a talented actress, with New York film critic Pauline Kael proclaiming her “the funniest giddy neurotic lady on the screen”.
Her big smile and off-center appeal helped her land her roles in Oh my God ! against George Burns and John Denver, Mr. Mom (as the wife of Michael Keaton) and Tootsie in which she plays the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and learns that he disguised himself as a woman to revive his career. (She also lost the supporting actress Oscar at that year’s Academy Awards to Lange.)
Although best known for his comedy, Garr has appeared in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The black stallion And The escape artist that she could handle drama just as well.
“I would like to play Norma Rae And Sophie’s choicebut I never had the chance,” she once said, adding that she had become a comic actress.
She had a gift for spontaneous humor, often playing the role of David Letterman during appearances on NBC. Late Night with David Letterman at the start of his race.
His appearances became so frequent and their good-natured bickering so convincing that, for a time, rumors circulated that they were romantically involved. Years later, Letterman credited these early appearances with helping make the show a success.
It was also during these years that Garr began to feel “a little beeping or ticking” in his right leg. It started in 1983 and eventually spread to her right arm, but she felt she could live with it. By 1999, the symptoms had become so severe that she sought medical attention. The diagnosis: multiple sclerosis.
For three years, Garr did not reveal his illness.
“I was afraid I wouldn’t find a job,” she explained in a 2003 interview. “People hear about MS and think, ‘Oh, my God, this person only has two days to live. »
After going public, she became a spokesperson for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, giving humorous speeches at rallies across the United States and Canada.
“You have to find your center and roll with the punches because it’s a difficult thing to do: to be pitied by people,” she commented in 2005. “Just trying to explain to people that I’m fine is tiring. “
She also continued to act, appearing on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Greetings from Tucson, Life with Bonnie and other TV shows. She also had a brief recurring role in Friends in the 1990s as Lisa Kudrow’s mother. After several failed romances, Garr married entrepreneur John O’Neill in 1993. They adopted a daughter, Molly, before divorcing in 1996.
In his 2005 autobiography, Speedbumps: a journey through HollywoodGarr explained his decision not to discuss his age.
“My mother taught me that people in showbiz never reveal their real age. She never revealed hers or my father’s,” she wrote.
She said she was born in Los Angeles, although most reference works list Lakewood, Ohio. As her father’s career declined, the family, including Teri’s two older brothers, lived with relatives in the Midwest and East.
The Garrs eventually returned to California, settling in the San Fernando Valley, where Teri graduated from North Hollywood High School and studied speech and drama for two years at California State University, in Northridge.
Garr recalled in 1988 what his father told his children about pursuing a career in Hollywood.
“Don’t go into this business,” he told them. “It’s the lowest. It’s humiliating for people.
Garr is survived by his daughter, Molly O’Neil, and a grandson, Tyryn.
___
AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy contributed to this report.
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Donald Trump climbs into a garbage truck to challenge Biden and Harris – National
Donald Trumpaccustomed to trash talk, got into a garbage truck adorned with his campaign stickers on Wednesday, an apparent response to President Joe Biden appearing to call his supporters “trash” earlier this week.
The Halloween Eve cosplay took place during a campaign stop in Wisconsin. Trump left his private plane in Green Bay and, donning a bright orange safety vest, climbed tremblingly into the medical vehiclewhich carried the slogan “Make America Great Again!” » by Trump. slogan.
Speaking to the press gathered at the photo op, Trump asked, “What do you think of my garbage truck?” adding that it was “in honor of Kamala (Harris) and Joe Biden.”
He added that the president “should be ashamed of himself.”
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump holds a press conference from inside a garbage truck at Austin Straubel Green Bay International Airport October 30, 2024 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Puce Somodevilla/Getty Images
In case you’re confused, Trump was reacting to Biden’s response to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at the former president’s rally at Madison Square Garden this weekend.
Addressing the racist joke on Tuesday, Biden appeared to turn the insult back on Trump supporters, calling them “trash” during a Zoom call with a Latino voters’ organization.
“The only garbage I see floating out there is from his supporters – his – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” Biden said. said during the callalthough the president later walked back that comment and clarified that he intended to target “hateful rhetoric” against Latinos seen at Trump’s Sunday rally in New York.
The White House also attempted to clean up the mess, insisting that Hinchcliffe was the only target Biden’s comments. They pointed to a transcript of the call, showing Biden saying “supporter” — in the singular — not “supporters.”
Harris also responded to Biden’s comments on Wednesday, telling reporters: “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they’re voting for.” »
“I believe the job that I do is to represent all people, whether they support me or not,” Harris said during a campaign stop at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. “And as president of the United States, I will be president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not.”
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As for Trump, he doubled down on his assertion that he didn’t know Hinchcliffe or how he was booked for Sunday’s rally.
“I don’t know anything about the actor. I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him,” Trump said from the cab of the garbage truck. “He’s a comedian, what can I tell you? I don’t know anything about him. I don’t know why he’s here.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks to the media at Austin Straubel Green Bay International Airport October 30, 2024 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Puce Somodevilla/Getty Images
Biden’s comment, whatever his intent, gave plenty of fodder for Republican outrage and became a talking point that reverberated through Wednesday’s rally in Green Bay.
“I can assure you that we are not trash. How dare you say that” said Brett Favre, the former Green Bay Packers quarterback, who appeared on stage to support Trump.
“As I look outside, I see police officers, teachers, nurses, grandparents, students. I see ordinary Americans who make this country great.
Trump, still wearing the high-visibility safety vest, spoke at length about his garbage truck stunt.
“One of my colleagues came up and said to me: ‘Sir, you know that the word ‘trash’ is the hottest thing at the moment. It’s the hottest thing out there. Sir, would you like to drive a garbage truck? » Trump said. “They stopped that garbage truck. I don’t know how they did it so quickly. I have very competent people. They put a big sign on the truck. Have you seen it?
He also talked about the garbage truck driver’s appearance — “He looked like Cary Grant in his prime” — and shared that he worried about his ability to climb into the truck (at one point given, he seemed to grab and miss, the door handle several times).
“I said, ‘Man, if I don’t make it up there, it’s going to be very embarrassing.’ These stupid people will say he’s cognitively and physically impaired,” Trump told the Wisconsin crowd. “So the staircase, the first staircase, is like here. I said, damn – so I had the adrenaline and I did it.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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Edmonton Elks Name Three-Time Gray Cup Champion Chris Morris as President and CEO – Edmonton
Chris Morris has been named the new president and CEO of Edmonton ElksTHE CFL club announced it on Wednesday.
Morris was an offensive lineman with Edmonton from 1992 to 2005 and won the Gray Cup with the club in 1993, 2003 and 2005.
He spent the last 12 years as head coach of the University of Alberta U Sports football team.
“This is a dream opportunity for me,” Morris, the 2023 U Sports Coach of the Year, said in a statement. “As a proud EE alumnus and passionate supporter of soccer in Northern Alberta, I know how much this club means to the community and look forward to continuing our tradition of giving back and winning games football.”
Morris succeeds Rick LeLacheur, who came out of retirement to assume the role of interim president and CEO following the departure of Victor Cui in August 2023. The team said LeLacheur would remain with the team as advisor to the owner. Larry Thompson and will remain alternate governor of the club.
Morris’ first tasks will be deciding the future of general manager Geroy Simon and head coach Jarious Jackson.
Simon and Jackson took over the team on an interim basis when the Elks fired former head coach and general manager Chris Jones after an 0-5 start. The team had a winning record (7-6) after the change.
The team said Morris will be introduced in his new role during a news conference Thursday. A Toronto native, Morris was a two-time All-Canadian while playing for the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.
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Thompson called Morris a “winner and a leader” while playing for Edmonton, taking him eighth overall in the 1992 CFL draft.
“As a teacher, principal and most recently coach of the Golden Bears, Chris has strived for excellence and commanded respect,” Thompson said in a statement.
“His connection to our past, his leadership qualities and his understanding of what it takes to win made him the right choice to lead us through 2025 and beyond.” »
Morris faces a once-proud team that has struggled in recent years and hasn’t made the playoffs since 2019.
Thompson was revealed as the club’s first private owner in August. The franchise has been community-owned since its inception in 1949.
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Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine arrested in New York for parole violation – National
Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine tried unsuccessfully Tuesday to persuade a federal judge not to send him to prison, calling him a “brother” and insisting he never intended to violate the terms of his probation following a felony conviction.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of Manhattan ordered him detained for at least two weeks, citing allegations of misconduct such as failing drug tests and refusing to obtain required permission to travel – acts which, according to him, would reflect a lack of respect for the law.
The judge also noted that the artist left the Dominican Republic this year, violating a court order allowing him to stay there after being arrested in January on domestic violence charges and detained in October 2023 after being accused of assaulting a local music producer. His lawyers say he is being treated unfairly there, in a corrupt justice system.
In 2019, Engelmayer sentenced him to two years in prison in a racketeering case. The musician, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, pleaded guilty in 2019 to charges accusing him of joining and leading the violence of the gang known as the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.
Tekashi 6ix9ine was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning. When he failed to do so, Engelmayer signed an arrest warrant. When the rapper showed up later that morning, he was arrested and charged with violating his probation multiple times, which a prosecutor described as a “pattern of non-compliance.”
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Engelmayer, who released Tekashi 6ix9ine in early April 2020 by granting a request for compassionate release due to the dangers the coronavirus posed to him, was stern as the rapper sat before him.
He seemed to soften somewhat after Tekashi 6ix9ine insisted on addressing him directly.
The rapper apologized for arriving late to court.
“I’m not a bad person,” he said, noting that he had completed four and a half years of a five-year supervised release sentence but ran into problems after his supervision was transferred in July from New York court officers. York to officers of the Southern District Court of Florida, where he currently lives.
He disputed prosecutors’ claims that he did not seek permission to travel to Las Vegas in early September for a show in front of 20,000 people, and said he skipped two appointments for drug tests because he thought they were unnecessary. after a previous positive test for marijuana use turned out to be incorrect.
“I feel like I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said, while quickly adding that he knew he did some things that were “technically” wrong.
Otherwise, he said, it would have been “perfectly clean.”
He also said that his life was difficult and that “the last four years have been bad, brother.”
He added: “Freedom is everything to me. »
Later, Tekashi 6ix9ine addressed the judge in more typical fashion, saying his failure to appear for a few drug tests was “just a misunderstanding, your honor.” He insisted that he had never used drugs and that a drug test that revealed the presence of methamphetamine was the result of prescription medications containing traces of that substance.
At another point, he told Engelmayer, “I’m not a piece of…” before pausing, apparently to choose the right words, before saying, “I’m not a bad person.” »
The judge admitted there might be justification for some of his behavior, but said he felt the rapper had “cut corners.”
After the hearing, the rapper’s attorney, Lance Lazzaro, said in an email that his client was charged with three “technical violations” of his probation and that he was “confident that each specification will be dismissed.”
The musician’s next hearing is scheduled for November 12.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
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Canada’s plan for NATO goals unclear, PBO says, as U.S. election raises stakes – National
Canada’s plan to strike NATO the target for defense spending remains unclear and current forecasts for increased military spending are based on “erroneous” economic projections, according to the federal budget watchdog.
The report of the parliamentary budget officer (PBO), Yves Giroux, Wednesday, barely a week before the American elections, the outcome of which could have security implications for Canada.
Republican candidate Donald Trump, who has often complained that other NATO members are not spending the agreed 2% of their GDP on defense, warned that the United States may fail to defend allies who fail to achieve this goal.
He also said he would “encourage” Russia to attack so-called “delinquent” NATO countries.
The military alliance is based on the principle of collective defense: an attack against one member is an attack against all and will result in a common response.
At this year’s NATO summit in Washington, D.C., Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is committed that Canada will meet the alliance’s goal of 2 percent of gross domestic product spent on defense by 2032, but he gave no details on how that goal will be achieved.
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“The government has not published any figures showing how it plans to achieve the 2% target by 2032-33. » » declared the PBO in its press release.
Canada’s updated defense policy also projects that spending will increase from 1.37 percent of GDP currently to 1.76 percent by 2030.
The PBO said the 1.76 percent figure is “based on an erroneous GDP forecast” and that according to the watchdog’s own analysis, projected defense spending will only reach 1.58 percent of GDP by 2029-30.
NATO members agreed to the 2% target in 2014, but Canada has not achieved it for a long time.
For Canada to meet its commitment, the country will need to increase its annual military spending to $81.9 billion by the 2032-33 fiscal year, the PBO said.
This means that defense spending will have to almost double the $41 billion planned for 2024-25.
Canada’s defense budget has increased by more than 57 percent since 2014 and is estimated at $29.9 billion for this year.
In terms of pure monetary value, Canada ranks seventh among NATO allies, according to the alliance. But as a share of GDP devoted to defense, Canada ranks fifth and last out of 31 member countries.
Committing to Canada’s timetable for meeting the NATO target, Trudeau said in July: “We are continually stepping up our efforts and punching above our weight, which is not always reflected in the calculation crude math that some people turn to very quickly, which is why we have always questioned the two percent, calling it the “be all and end all.”
A leaked Pentagon assessment obtained by The Washington Post last year said Trudeau told NATO officials Canada would never meet the target of the alliance.
More to come…
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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Homeownership and pensions play a significant role in Canada’s wealth gap – National
Statistics Canada’s latest financial security survey reveals a stark disparity between the wealth of homeowners and renters, although it fails to capture the true scale of what belongs to Canada’s richest families.
The survey, conducted every few years, shows that homeowner families whose main income earner was aged 55 to 64 and who received an employer pension had a median net worth of 1.4 million dollars in 2023. Renters without a retirement plan at that age group had a median net worth of $11,900.
Homeownership was the main difference maker, as those who owned their home but did not have a pension had a median net worth of $914,000, while those who had a pension but did not own a home had a median net worth of $359,000.
Data released Tuesday also shows Canadians across all income brackets are trying to get into real estate, said Dan Skiller, policy director at the economic inclusion nonprofit Social Capital Partners.
“The most striking numbers presented here relate solely to the growth of real estate as an asset class,” he said.
“So it’s clear that everyone has been getting signals about the importance of this, and I think that’s dysfunctional and has led to an unsustainable situation where real estate has become an essential stepping stone to actually having financial security in the Canada.
The situation in the report was similar for families whose main income earner was under the age of 35, since the median net worth of those who own their primary residence was $457,100, compared to $44,000 for those who do not. .
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The gap for young families is even greater than at first glance, since Statistics Canada points out that of this $44,000 net worth, a growing amount is due to the fact that renters own real estate that is not theirs. main residence.
It noted that among renters without a pension, 15 percent had a net worth above $150,000 in 2023, up from 5 percent in 2019, due to a growing number of property buyers.
Overall, the survey found the median net worth of Canadian households was $519,700, up 57% from 2019, when it was last conducted.
Median household wealth under 35 was $159,100, up from $56,400 in 2019, while the 55 to 64 category was richest at $873,400, up from $797,000 four years earlier.
The survey involved a 45-minute questionnaire sent to a sample of nearly 40,000 households to provide a detailed view of what families own and their debts.
“This is really the only survey we have that allows the government to look at the complete financial situation of families,” Skiller said.
The survey, however, has a significant blind spot for Canada’s richest. Statistics Canada divides the survey into tiers to ensure various categories of households are represented, but the highest tier is Canada’s richest five percent, meaning anyone above about $2.4 million for the 2019 survey.
The large top tier means the top 1 percent and 0.1 percent are barely captured, Skiller said.
“What is not part of the investigation is to take a broader look at the Canadian economy and see whether the concentration of wealth in general is getting worse or better,” he said. he declared.
“And to my dismay, they can’t even attempt to answer that question, because they haven’t set up their investigation in such a way that they have even a good chance of bringing in a single billionaire or 100 millionaires to respond to the survey.”
The richest family in the 2012 version of the survey had a net worth of $23.7 million, and $27.3 million in the 2016 report, while Credit Suisse estimates there is more than 5,500 Canadians with a net worth of more than $50 million, including 120 with a net worth of more than $500 million, Skiller noted in an April report.
Statistics Canada said the share of wealth held by the top 1 per cent will be underestimated in this data source. Skilleter notes that the United States specifically sets a level for billionaires to ensure they are represented in its wealth survey results, which helps show economic inequality in that country.
Canada appears more equal based on the survey data, but that can be misleading.
Data from the 2019 survey was used to estimate that Canada’s top 1 percent held approximately 13.7 percent of the wealth, and the top 0.1 percent held 2.8 percent. But by combining the survey with external data like the Forbes Rich List, the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated that the top 1 percent owned 24.8 percent and the top 0.1 percent held 11.2 percent of global wealth.
“We’re not even aware of how owning capital dramatically increases some people’s wealth,” Skilleter said.
“It would lead to a more frank conversation about the different ways public policy…could intervene and improve people’s lives.” »
© 2024 The Canadian Press
