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CBC
7 days ago
- General
- CBC
Whistler thins some trees in effort to reduce wildfire risk
Every year, wildfires force evacuations, scorches forests and turn homes into ashes. To fight back, some communities are turning to tree cutting. Supporters say it's key to reducing wildfire risk, but some worry it does more harm than good. Radio-Canada's Camille Vernet went to Whistler to find out what's really at stake.
CTV News
16-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Wildfires show why CBC needs public safety mandate: researcher
The CBC logo is projected onto a screen during the CBC's annual upfront presentation in Toronto, May 29, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin OTTAWA — The wildfires that are flaring up across Canada again are one of the reasons public safety should be added to CBC/Radio-Canada's mandate, a new report from a research centre at McGill University argues. The report says other public media around the world are incorporating national emergency preparedness and crisis response into their role, and recommends that aspect of the CBC's mandate be formalized and strengthened. 'For us in Canada, wildfires and floods have sort of crept up on us in the last five years as part of an everyday reality,' said Jessica Johnson, a senior fellow at McGill University's Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, who co-authored the report released Wednesday. 'They were always a reality if you were living in heavily forested areas. But now the smoke from some parts is affecting the whole country and even our neighbours.' On Monday and Tuesday, special air-quality statements caused by wildfire smoke were in effect in many areas of the country, with the government warning residents to consider limiting time outdoors and watch for symptoms of smoke exposure. Thousands of people in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta have been forced out of their homes this spring and summer due to the wildfires. The report says previous research that looked at false information during wildfires in Canada found that on social media, 'influential right-wing and anti-establishment groups blamed arson by green terrorists and the government for the fires, which further fuelled a distrust in the media in the moments when accurate information was critically important.' Johnson said in the interview that 'if there's misinformation online that's telling people it's just a hoax, you don't need to evacuate, that puts people's lives at risk.' There are also wider concerns about misinformation. Facebook, a platform many have come to rely on for information, blocks news content in Canada, while some Canadians are increasingly turning to generative AI for information, even though such systems can make mistakes and provide false information. 'We've lost a lot of the healthy sources in addition to the arrival of the unreliable sources of information,' Johnson said. While some countries in recent years have been changing the mandates of their public media in response to the climate crisis, she explained, others have been doing it in response to security concerns — for instance, Baltic countries looking at their proximity to Russia. The head of the recent public inquiry into foreign interference concluded that misinformation and disinformation are an existential threat to Canada's democracy, Johnson noted. 'So you start putting it all together and you realize public media starts to look not like a nice to have. It starts to like a part of your communications infrastructure,' Johnson said. During this year's federal election, the Liberals promised to increase the CBC's funding by an initial $150 million annually, and to make a number of changes to the its mandate. That includes adding 'the clear and consistent transmission of life-saving information during emergencies.' Johnson said it's important to ensure that the CBC isn't just repeating information provided by the government, but that it's able to question and hold the government to account. Another key element is ensuring the public broadcaster has the ability to do the work it's tasked with, especially at the local level. Johnson gave the example of residents in an area facing a wildfire, who should be able to find information about potential evacuations affecting their community, instead of media reports being focused on broadly informing Canadians across the country about the fire. She noted there are parts of the country where, when it comes to media presence, the CBC 'is kind of the only game in town or in the nearest town.' Johnson said one option is for the CBC to partner with local independent journalists, a model which has been implemented in Britain and 'could be a great model for Canada.' Changing technology also means there are technical issues to consider — internet and cellphone networks can go down, and many people don't have traditional TV or radios anymore. 'I think it's a government responsibility to do that work, whether it involves research, and say, are we actually prepared, and who needs to be involved in a conversation about making sure that we're prepared?' The CRTC, Canada's broadcast and telecom regulator, announced Tuesday that it's launching a consultation on how to improve Canada's public alert system. It requires cellphone, cable and satellite providers, and TV and radio broadcasters to distribute emergency alerts. Johnson's report concludes that Canada's emergency preparedness needs are changing, and that means 'CBC-Radio Canada may need to be structured to serve the country in ways it hasn't had to in the past.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2025. Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press
CTV News
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Serge Fiori: National funeral bids farewell to singer
Serge Fiori, founder of the rock band Harmonium speaks during an interview in Montreal, Tuesday, November 15, 2016. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press) Quebec will bid a final farewell to Serge Fiori on Tuesday with a national funeral at the Wilfrid-Pelletier Hall at Place des Arts in Montreal. The event is set to begin at 3 p.m. and is slated to be broadcast on Radio-Canada and LCN. READ MORE: Quebec music legend Serge Fiori dies at 73 The singer-songwriter died on June 24 at the age of 73. The Quebec flag flying above the parliament building in Quebec City has been lowered to half-mast to mark the occasion. As the co-founder of Harmonium, Serge Fiori left his mark on Quebec's music scene with the progressive rock band. His legacy continued long after, whether with singer Richard Séguin or through his solo projects. The organizers of Tuesday's ceremony have assured that the public tickets, which were free and are now marked as sold out on the event's website, cannot be resold, as was the case for Les Cowboys Fringants singer Karl Tremblay's November 2023 funeral. Anyone with tickets not purchased from the official website will be denied entry. Fiori was born on March 4, 1952, in Montreal's Little Italy neighbourhood. Harmonium released three albums: Harmonium in 1974, known for major hits including Pour un instant and Un musicien parmi tant d'autres, followed by Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison in 1975 and L'Heptade in 1976. – This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on July 15, 2024.
CBC
11-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Chaotic 2021 N.L. election saw votes cast using sticky notes, people sending selfies to get ballots
Votes were cast using sticky notes, people tried registering for ballot kits using selfies as ID and more than 500,000 envelopes had to be ordered at the 11th hour as officials in Newfoundland and Labrador scrambled to switch to a provincewide mail-in election following a COVID-19 outbreak in 2021. That's according to more than 900 pages of court documents obtained by CBC/Radio-Canada, which reveal confusion at Elections Newfoundland and Labrador as what should have been the shortest campaign allowed by law stretched into the longest and most chaotic in the province's history. The filings — part of an election challenge launched in 2021 but settled last month on the eve of trial — show no fewer than four outages brought down Elections N.L.'s online voter registration system as people frantically tried to sign up for special ballots. The first shutdown struck on Feb. 12, in the hours after public health officials decided to move the entire province to the maximum COVID-19 alert level and Elections N.L. suspended voting in all 40 electoral districts. On that day, Elections N.L. fielded six gigabytes of emails — per hour. Two more outages happened on Feb. 19, the last day to register to vote by mail, with one period of "intermittent" failures occurring during the final half-hour before the 8 p.m. deadline. Staff, phone lines overwhelmed According to interview transcripts from elections personnel, verifying voters' identity became less and less of a priority for Elections N.L. as staff became inundated with more than 100,000 unexpected applications for special ballot kits. Kim Petley, acting supervisor of special ballots for part of the election, said in one transcript that if someone called to register for a mail-in ballot but wasn't on the voters' list, "We took you on your word and we issued the ballot." Petley said in "normal circumstances … that would not have been acceptable, but the intent here was to get ballots out to people who were requesting them." Some applications came with a selfie or a photo of the voter in front of their house, intended to confirm their address. Some voters and candidates used what staff called the "shotgun method," emailing questions to the full list of Elections N.L. staff directly, further clogging inboxes. Others sent "50 or 60 applications all in one fax," according to an interview transcript of then-chief electoral officer Bruce Chaulk. Meanwhile, phone lines were blocked. "The calls were overwhelming", said Travis Wooley, then second-in-command at Elections N.L., who was stuck home on COVID-19 lockdown during the first hours after in-person voting was suspended. Wooley is now the top official at the agency. The province is set to go to the polls again within months. 'The whole thing didn't make sense' Emails show electors and candidates frantically seeking help from Elections N.L. In one case, after the deadline to vote by mail was postponed, a Liberal staffer asked whether a constituent who'd just turned 18 years old was suddenly eligible to vote. Woolley didn't know and replied he'd need to "discuss [it] in the a.m." with Chaulk. In one transcript, Chaulk confirmed some voting kits had been returned, not with a ballot, but with an improvised "slip of paper" inside. He said his team counted the votes because he "could determine the intent of the elector, which is what's required by law." "The whole thing didn't make sense," said Yvonne Bugden, a special ballot coordinator, who confirmed some people voted using sticky notes. "Why do we have a ballot at all?" Lawyers also referenced one case where a single elector ordered 40 kits for rotational workers in Fort McMurray — all of which went to the same post office box. Elections N.L. staff, including Chaulk, explained that given the voters' signed a declaration in their ballot kits to attest they are who they say they are, they weren't concerned. Harassment, threats to Elections N.L. staff Chaulk repeatedly defended Elections N.L., according to the transcripts, which recorded interviews conducted by lawyers preparing for the controverted elections application. That court challenge was launched in April 2021 by then-NDP leader and St. John's East-Quidi Vidi candidate Allison Coffin, as well as voter Whymarrh Whitby. The case was settled in June when the winning candidate in that race, Liberal John Abbott, announced he would resign by the end of the summer. Elections N.L. acknowledged that Whitby, despite his best efforts to obtain a mail-in ballot, had been disenfranchised. In the transcripts, Chaulk explained public health had approved Elections N.L.'s COVID-19 preparedness plans, but he said mass pandemic "hysteria" had led to resignations from elections staff "freaking out" and to closures at many facilities intended to be used as polling stations — events he said he never could have prepared for. He said Elections N.L. had anticipated more people would vote by special ballot during the pandemic and had prepared some 60,000 special ballot kits ahead of the 2021 election, far more than the 9,313 kits used during the previous one in 2019. According to the filings, Chaulk's team also hired between 20 and 30 special ballot workers — more than double the number on the payroll in 2019 — and had 3,000 litres of hand sanitizer on hand. However, in the end, 200 special ballot workers were necessary and half a million extra envelopes had to be ordered last minute. Thousands of pieces of personal protective equipment went unused. "We have 5,000 face shields sitting here in the warehouse. Don't know anybody [who] wants them, do you?" said Chaulk, according to the transcripts. Tensions with public health Chaulk said he felt that the province's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, could have intervened and shut down the election, but demurred, while his office had no statutory authority to put an end to the campaign. "Everybody was expecting me to be able to stop the election," he said. "She certainly had the power," Chaulk added, contradicting statements Fitzgerald and her office gave in 2021. Chaulk came under fire for hand-delivering ballots to certain candidates living near his house, while tens of thousands of voters waited for the ballots to arrive by mail. "Would I do it again? No," he said, according to the transcripts. He was also criticized for other decisions, such as briefly allowing four people to vote by telephone, a practice not permitted under provincial law according to the agency's own lawyers. But during the lengthy discovery interviews with lawyers, he said he faced threats and "unfounded accusations" during the campaign, and police patrolled outside his home in St. John's after his car was vandalized. He said certain candidates yelled at his staff, describing PC MHA Lloyd Parrott as "quite abusive" and Independent MHA Eddie Joyce as "not very civil." Joyce flatly denied the allegations on Wednesday, while Parrott said in a statement he had "passionately argued on behalf of my constituents." No evidence of voter fraud In the transcripts viewed by CBC/Radio-Canada, no one interviewed said they had ever seen clear evidence of fraud, or of people voting more than once. In a statement on Wednesday, Elections N.L. reiterated it had found no evidence of electors voting more than once in 2021 and said its manual verification protocols and electronic adjudication system were used successfully in 2021 and in subsequent by-elections. In the court documents, the agency did, however, acknowledge more than 40 voters in St. John's East-Quidi Vidi should have received a ballot but didn't, or voted in the wrong district. When he resigned, avoiding a costly trial just a few months before the deadline for a new provincial election, Abbott said 100 to 140 witnesses would have had to testify about numerous alleged irregularities. Amanda Bittner, a Memorial University political science professor, said Wednesday the numerous "anomalies" during the election call into question the vote's integrity. "Sticky notes? I mean, come on," she said. "There's nobody in the world who'd think that's the way that ought to be done." Kelly Blidook, a fellow political science professor at MUN, said the apparent scrambling at Elections N.L. made for an environment "ripe for errors" at the agency, which "diminishes trust" in the electoral process and could impact future voter turnout. "I think this is unfortunate for the number of people who didn't get to vote because we know voting once begets voting in the future," he said. Blidook added that going forward, an independent body should be responsible for reviewing the election and reporting back to the House of Assembly. He did acknowledge, however, that Elections N.L. was placed in the unenviable position of running a wintertime pandemic vote called by then-Liberal premier Andrew Furey months before he needed to. After the 2021 election, the Liberal government said it would reform the Elections Act, a promise it will not be capable of fulfilling. The House of Assembly has suspended work for the summer and a new election must take place between on or before Oct. 14. Steps taken since 2021 In a statement on Wednesday, Elections N.L. said its 300 officials are prepared for the upcoming provincial vote and that it's "committed to continuously improving our processes and making sure that we oversee a fair and democratic election." It said it completed a "comprehensive review" after the last election and has made "significant improvements to electoral operations" at its headquarters in St. John's and in district returning offices, including the adoption of a new elections' management system, providing better training for staff and opening a larger warehouse capable of maintaining an inventory of more than 100,000 special ballot kits. "For the 2025 general election Elections N.L. has proactively established working groups to address various threats to the electoral process such as cyberattacks, incidents at electoral offices or polling locations, and emergency response," the statement reads.
CTV News
11-07-2025
- CTV News
Quebec Court of Appeal authorizes plaintiff to pursue civil action against Robert Miller
The Quebec Court of Appeal overturned a March 2024 Superior Court ruling dismissing an $8-million sexual assault civil lawsuit against billionaire Robert Miller. The plaintiff claimed that as of age 17, and for several years, she had been the victim of a network of sexual exploitation of underage girls set up and operated by Miller and his associates. She was allegedly led to offer sexual services to Miller in exchange for luxury gifts, remuneration and travel. The Superior Court ruled that she could not pursue the lawsuit because she had accepted $50,000 during a meeting with Miller's lawyer. The plaintiff claimed the money was given to her as a gift, which the judge had rejected. By overturning the ruling, the Court of Appeal has given the plaintiff the right to sue Miller. The Court of Appeal said in its ruling that the plaintiff met with the billionaire's lawyer in Montreal after Radio-Canada broadcast an investigation revealing the details of Miller's case in 2023. He has been accused of sexually exploiting underage girls or girls who have recently come of age. According to the plaintiff, Miller offered her $50,000 to drop her civil lawsuit. His lawyer suggested that she consult a lawyer before making her decision, and she was advised not to sign any documents. The plaintiff received an envelope containing $50,000 and left the lawyer's office without signing a receipt. According to the Court of Appeal, the fact that the claimant did not sign any documents entitles her to pursue legal action against the 81-year-old head of Future Electronics. 'Ultimately, the fact that the appellant chose to keep this sum rather than return it does not prove that a transaction took place ... nor does it mean that she waived her civil action against the respondents. It therefore does not render her action inadmissible against them,' the court said in its ruling. A criminal case against Miller came to a halt last month after a Quebec Superior Court judge stayed charges against him, saying his Parkinson's disease is too advanced for him to stand trial. He faced 24 sex-related charges involving 11 women. Many of the complainants were minors when the alleged offences occurred. Back in January, a Quebec Superior Court judge authorized a separate class-action lawsuit against Miller over allegations he paid minors for sex. In November 2024, a lawyer said 51 women had already come forward to participate in the suit.
