Latest news with #Hyndman
CBC
08-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
91-year-old veteran says he was denied right to vote in Ontario's election, despite having proper ID
At 91-years-old, veteran Charles Parent says he's voted in every single Ontario election, even casting a ballot from overseas while serving in Europe. But this winter snap election marked a first for him. Parent says he was denied his right to vote despite bringing proper ID to his polling station in the riding of Bay of Quinte— and his family fears many others were turned away for the same reason. "I've never missed a vote. This is the first one I missed and I was upset," Parent told CBC Toronto. According to Elections Ontario, people can vote as long as they have a voter information card and a one piece of ID showing their name, which Parent did. But Parent's daughter, Susan Hyndman, told CBC Toronto a polling worker said his voter information and health cards weren't enough, suggesting he go home and get another form of ID with his address on it. "He also said that we weren't the first. He said, 'We turned many away for this particular reason,'" Hyndman said. Election Ontario's website says Parent would have needed an ID with an address only if he didn't have his voter information card, which wasn't the case. Assuming the polling worker must have been correct, the rest of his family voted while Parent waited and eventually left. If it had been a warm summer day they would have likely returned, Hyndman said, but bad weather already made it a challenge for them to leave the house with Parent, who uses a walker. "By the time we got home, we weren't going back out again," she said. But for Parent, there was also a layer of frustration. "I didn't feel like coming back, put it that way," he said. "People…should be trained properly" Nikole Hyndman, Parent's granddaughter, immediately tried to fix the situation when she heard about what had happened, but to no avail. She said two Elections Ontario hotlines seemed to be inactive, while a third sent her to voicemail. She has since filed a formal complaint with Elections Ontario. In an email sent to Nikole seen by CBC Toronto, Elections Ontario said their "feedback will be reviewed" and they "understand that participating in the electoral process should be straightforward, accessible, and positive for all voters." When CBC Toronto asked Elections Ontario about Parent's experience at the polls and how many similar complaints their office received, they said they were unable to comment on individual cases or disclose information related to specific voters. Voter turnout just 1.4% away from all-time low The PCs won Parent's Bay of Quinte riding with Tyler Allsopp capturing 20,999 votes (44.4 per cent of the vote) to defeat Liberal David O'Neil, who was second with 14,883 votes. The NDP's Amanda Robertson finished third, with 8,745 votes. You can find all of the election results on our interactive page here. Nikole said it's upsetting that such a vulnerable member of the population was turned away from the polls. That's especially the case, she says, "considering the problems we've had in this province and in this country with voter turnout, to then see somebody…making the effort to go to the polls and to be turned away due to a lack of clear, accessible information." Last month's provincial election had a voter turnout of 45.4 per cent, a slight rise from 2022's 44 per cent — the lowest voter turnout in Ontario's history. Parent managed to vote in past elections even while serving in England and Spain during his three decades in the Canadian Armed Forces. While in the air force, he says he got to fly major figures including Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, as well as Pierre Elliot Trudeau. "Papa taught us that democracy is important," Nikole said. "I feel like that's a part of the value system that I was raised on." More than a week after the election, Parent and his family still remain puzzled about why he was turned away from voting in his own home riding. "I voted all over, all over the world [in] different elections," Parent said. "I always managed to vote because the system was well organized."
Korea Herald
08-02-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
US overnight trading platform gears up to make comeback in Korea
US alternative trading system Blue Ocean ATS hopes to resume trading service for Korean investors soon, following a six-month halt sparked by its system crash in August. Operated by Blue Ocean Technologies, the ATS provides overnight trading of US stocks, enabling Korean investors to trade during their daytime hours. 'We have invested in Korea with our technology, support and compliance. I believe we are close (to recommence the service),' Blue Ocean Technologies CEO and President Brian Hyndman said in an interview held with The Korea Herald at a hotel in Yeouido, western Seoul, Thursday. In August, Blue Ocean shut down its matching engine due to a surge in trade volume, resulting in the cancellation of orders worth 630 billion won ($435 million) across 90,000 accounts here. Since then, local securities firms have suspended the service. As the brokerage houses requested Blue Ocean Technologies to set up measures to prevent relapse, the company has completed the immigration to a new server and set up a new accommodation policy for investor protection. Though the compensation dispute over the outage was not the key reason that stopped the trading, Blue Ocean Technologies recently worked out a new accommodation policy, which includes financial compensation of up to $250,000 per month. At the time of the incident, the company did not have the rules for compensation. It is not the standard for an ATS to have a compensation policy in the US, according to Hyndman. "But I wanted to do that (come up with a compensation policy) for Korea going forward to give (the investors) a level of comfort," he said. For a better local presence, the company has set up an office in Seoul, appointing former representative director of LSEG Korea Kim Suk-joon as vice president and head of the north Asia-Pacific region. 'We fully demonstrated in the proof that we are ready to accommodate any businesses from Korea and most of the Korean customers are eager to resume businesses with us anytime," Kim said while joining the interview. According to Kim, Korean brokerage firms have shown a willingness to resume trading with Blue Ocean. "(The brokers) are waiting for the signal from the Financial Supervisory Service and Korea Financial Investment Association (Kofia)," Kim assessed, explaining Blue Ocean relies on the association to communicate with the financial regulator. Kofia is a representative body of the local brokerage firms. "The association is likely to poll the brokers to make sure that everybody is comfortable trading soon," Hyndman said, projecting the statement of the market inclination will help resume the business. While Korea had accounted for 65 percent of Blue Ocean ATS' share volume prior to the outage, the business has been growing strong even without the country, according to Hyndman. 'A lot is going on in the US equity markets with the new president's tariffs, Deepseek, and AI stocks. We had three record days in the past month -- record national volume being traded on Blue Ocean even without Korea,' Hyndman said. Despite the stable growth, Blue Ocean Technology wants Korea back on the table. 'Korea is a big part of our business. We want to get it back and we want to give the customers the offering that they are used to,' Hyndman said. While the daytime trading of US stocks for Korean investors had been exclusively offered by Blue Ocean, the market competition is likely to grow. More US exchanges are gearing up to expand their trading hours into the night hours, such as Moon ATS and 24X Exchange. Though Blue Ocean enjoyed its exclusivity in Korea, Hyndman welcomes the new competition. 'If we have a couple of competitors trading in the overnight space, the market is going to get bigger,' Hyndman said. 'Do I want to do 100 percent of 50 million shares or do I want to do 40 percent of half a billion shares, right?'
