Category: Canada

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Canada World

Transfer Appeal In Omar Khadr’s Case Will be Heard by Supreme Court

Omar Khadr, Supreme Court, transfer appeal
Omar Khadr, Supreme Court, transfer appeal

Transfer Appeal In Omar Khadr’s Case Will be Heard by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will hear a transfer appeal in the case of Omar Khadr, and will determine whether the federal government must transfer the inmate to a provincial jail or whether Khadr can still be housed in a federal penitentiary instead. In July of this year a ruling bu the Alberta Court of Appeals found that the transfer was allowed because the US sentence that the convicted terrorist was given is the equivalent to the sentence that a minor would receive in Canada. Ottawa wasted no time in challenging the decision by the court of appeal, leading the case in front of a higher court. Since the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case the transfer can not occur until after the hearing has been held, effectively putting a stop to the transfer until after this time.

Toronto born Omar Khadr received a conviction in the USA for killing an American soldier in Afghanistan by throwing a grenade, and he was just 15 years old at the time of the event. After US forces captured Khadr in 2002 he spent a decade in Guantanamo Bay, the US prison for terrorists which is still open today. After the conviction and the time spent in Guantanamo Bay Omar Khadr was repatriated to his native Canada in 2012. Khadr plead guilty in the US court on charges of murder, attempted murder, espionage, providing support for terrorism, and conspiracy, and he was sentenced to 8 years in prison. Khadr is now 28, and has spent the last 13 years of his life in one prison or another as a result of the convictions.

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Canada

Law Enforcement Does Not Need a Warrant for Cell Phone Search According to Canadian Court

cell phone search, law enforcement
cell phone search, law enforcement

According to the Supreme Court of Canada law enforcement does not require a warrant to perform a cell phone search in most cases, as long as strict rules set down by the court are followed. In addition to the strict guidelines given the cell phone search is limited in scope until a search warrant is received by the law enforcement officers. The decision by the court was split, 4 to 3, and it is the first time that the privacy of mobile phones has been addressed by the court. According to the court’s decision the search of the mobile phone must be indirect relation to the circumstances of the specific arrest, and detailed records of each search must be kept by law enforcement officers.

The decision by the Supreme Court of Canada sides with law enforcement in most respects when it comes to a cell phone search performed before a warrant is given. The case was brought as an appeal by Kevin Fearon, who was convicted of armed robbery in 2009 after police recovered evidence during a cell phone search without a warrant. According to Justice Thomas Cromwell, one of the majority justices on the decision, “The police simply did something that they believed on reasonable grounds to be lawful and were proven wrong, after the fact, by developments in the jurisprudence.” The 3 judges who disagreed with the majority decision stated that a search warrant should be required except in very rare and limited circumstances that involve danger to law enforcement or the public, or if the evidence to be recovered during a cell phone search could be deleted while waiting for a warrant.

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Canada

National Fighter Procurement Secretariat Releases Reports

For Immediate Release

December 10, 2014 — Ottawa, Ontario — Public Works and Government Services Canada

The National Fighter Procurement Secretariat today released the 2014 National Defence Annual Update on the life-cycle cost estimates for the F-35, the independent review of the Annual Update, and the latest report on Canadian industrial participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program. These reports were also tabled in Parliament.

The Secretariat also fulfilled its commitments under the Seven-Point Plan and is demonstrating transparency in releasing all unclassified reports.

No decision has been made on the replacement of Canada’s fighter fleet. To ensure that Canada retains a fighter capability during a transition to a new fleet, National Defence has extended the life expectancy of the CF-18s to 2025.

Quick Facts
The 2014 National Defence Annual Update, independently reviewed by Raymond Chabot Grant, Thornton outlines an overall increase of 0.3 per cent from the 2013 Annual Update in the estimated life-cycle costs over 40 years.
Through Canada’s continued participation in the Joint Strike Fighter Program, companies in Canada have secured US $637 million in contracts to date, an increase of US $50 million since the summer 2014 report.
Canada will continue to participate in the Joint Strike Fighter Program to keep all options open until a decision is made on the replacement of the CF-18 fleet.
By posting the unclassified summary report on the Evaluation of Options, the Secretariat is respecting its agreements with other governments and the companies that participated in the process to not release classified and commercially sensitive information, while meeting its commitment to transparency.
Associated Link

For more information, please visit the National Fighter Procurement Secretariat website.

All reports are available on the National Fighter Procurement Secretariat website.

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Source:: http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=913309

      

Categories
Canada Economic Health Politics

New Prostitution Bill Slammed by Sex Worker Groups

prostitution bill, sex worker groups
prostitution bill, sex worker groups

A new prostitution bill that was recently passed by the Canadian government has been slammed by sex worker groups. The bill was controversial from the moment that it was proposed, and while the intent was to protect sex workers and view them as victims rather than criminals the end result is not popular with sex worker groups who advocate for these victims. According to Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau Work Educate & Resist spokesperson Emily Symons “December 6th will be especially sad for sex workers this yea. The deeply flawed and misleadingly-named Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act not only reintroduces laws deemed unconstitutional in a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court only one year ago – it actually makes them worse.” Symons continued by saying that the bill will “absolutely put sex workers in Canada at greater risk of violence, and that is totally unacceptable.”

Sex worker groups agree with the reasons behind the new prostitution bill, but not the methods used. A number of agencies that include the Canadian AIDS Society and the John Howard Society want the prostitution bill repealed, and sex services decriminalized in the country. The agencies issued a joint statement which reads in part “Bill C-36 views all sex workers as victims of violence rather than understanding that it is criminalization, isolation and denial of rights and freedoms that breed violence and exploitation against sex workers.” It is too soon to tell whether the bill will work as intended or if unintended consequences will make it harder on sex workers in Canada instead.

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Alberta Canada Economic

Fort McKay First Nation Leader, Chief Jim Boucher, Well Compensated

Chief Jim Boucher, Fort McKay First Nation
Chief Jim Boucher, Fort McKay First Nation

The Fort MacKay First Nation leader Chief Jim Boucher receives the second highest salary out of all the chiefs in Canada, and is the highest paid chief in the Alberta region. The only individual who made more as a chief was Kwikwetlem First Nation Chief Ron Giesbrecht of British Columbia. Chief Jim Boucher received a salary of $644,442 according to statements which were provided to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. According to the audited statements that were filed Boucher also had a little over $60,000 in expenses for the annual period that ended on March 31, 2014. To put the salary in perspective several of the highest paid councilors in the region earned less than half of what Chief Jim Boucher earned, and some only earned a little over $200,000. Mayor Melissa Blake of Wood Buffalo earns an annual salary of just $127,671.

There are some who believe that Fort McKay First Nation Chief Jim Boucher is overpaid, while others defend the high annual salary and point too a budget in the millions of dollars for the group. The band gets around $2.5 million from the federal government, but this amounts to under 4% of the 2014 budget for the First Nation which is $70 million. The band ended the year with a surplus in the amount of $3 million, and some point out that this shows that Chief Jim Boucher manages the financial situation of the band wisely. Dayle Hyde commented that “The assumption is that First Nations are relying entirely on taxpayer dollars to operate. That’s not always the case, especially for Fort McKay. Our governance structure is a little more complicated than other First Nations.”

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Breaking News Canada Economic

B.C. Bird Flu Strain Identified, More Farms Under Quarantine

bird flu, avian flu quarantine
bird flu, avian flu quarantine

In 2009 the bird flu was found in B.C., and this had economic issues that caused a number of problems. It is now 2014, and a new avian flu quarantine is in effect again for some poultry farms in the B.C. region because a more virulent form of the same bird flu has been identified in birds at local farms once more. The Frasier Valley B.C. avian flu quarantine has affected 5 different farms in the area, some that have chickens and some that have turkeys. Poultry farms are inspected due to the risk of bird flu, and health officials have identified a very strong strain which has caused them to put an avian flu quarantine in place at the poultry farms where infected birds have been identified.

The latest strain of bird flu responsible for the avian flu quarantine in B.C. is more contagious than the previous strain identified in the past, and the risk for fatal complications and death is higher in the newest strain of bird flu identified in the British Columbia region. This has caused concern about the mutations that the H5N2 virus can undergo, and there is alarm that further mutations could result in a strain of the avian flu that is even more deadly in the future. 7 countries have stopped imports of poultry from the B.C. area of Canada as a precaution, and this shows the economic impacts that an avian flu quarantine can have for the entire area as well as the poultry farms that are placed under quarantine.