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Ryan Sawyer and his twin brother Kyle at their parents home in Fall River, N.S. on Christmas Eve 2022. Later that night Ryan, 31, was murdered outside the Halifax Alehouse. A bouncer, Alexander Levy, was charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death.Contributed by the Sawyer family/Courtesy of family

Nova Scotias Opposition Liberals are hammering the governing Progressive Conservatives over their continued refusal to activate a bar bouncer law introduced 13 years ago, which may have helped a Halifax man who died after an altercation with a security guard last Christmas Eve.

Bedford South MLA Braedon Clark said Tuesday that its no particular partys fault that the 2010 Security and Investigative Services Act was never brought into force, and called on Justice Minister Brad Johns to finally proclaim the law that was supported by all three political parties.

After Ryan Sawyer, 31, was allegedly killed at the hands of a bouncer at the Halifax Alehouse on Dec. 24, 2022, there has been renewed public attention into why bouncers remain unlicensed by the province of Nova Scotia. There have been political promises going back more than a decade to impose a licensing and training regime on security guards in nightclubs.

This government does have the ability now to do the right thing by proclaiming the law and providing comfort to Ryans family and friends and ensuring that in the future, this kind of tragedy does not happen again, Mr. Clark said.

He referenced a constitutional law experts opinion that writing off the bill undermines the will of the legislature. Last month, Toronto-based lawyer Sujit Choudhry told The Globe and Mail that ministers dont have a veto and are given a responsibility or a task by the legislature, to basically implement the law.

Mr. Johns responded to the remarks in Question Period by saying 13 years was a long time ago and that a lot has changed.

Weve reviewed it and weve decided to go through amendments with the Alcohol, Gaming, Fuel and Tobacco Division, he said, referring to new training requirements and criminal record checks for staff working at the provinces five late-night bars that his department brought in after Mr. Sawyers death.

A fatal night out in Halifax: Bar patrons death puts bouncer rules under spotlight

However, the PC decision not to proclaim the law may go against a high court decision that ruled cabinet ministers cannot simply ignore unproclaimed laws and cautions that government politicians cannot use their delay powers as a veto.

Put simply, it would not be open to a Minister to decide that an enacted statute will never be proclaimed, Justice Lorne Sossin wrote in an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling from August. His ruling says that the legitimate grounds for delaying proclamation must be related to the conditions necessary for implementing the legislation.

In the years after the Security and Investigative Services Act was passed but not proclaimed, the Nova Scotia civil service pursued the implementation of a law that would bring bouncers into the fold of the provinces trained and regulated security professions.

Records show that back in 2015, the activation of the new law was billed as being imminent. Nova Scotia Department of Justice officials in charge of regulated professions wrote a memo to security companies saying that because the old licensing act was being phased out and the new act was being phased in, temporary licenses were to be issued and extended for a few months.

But its unclear why exactly the Security and Investigative Services Act subsequently fell into limbo.

The law was originally passed in response to an outcry over the 1999 Christmas Eve death of Stephen Giffin, a man who died as he was ejected by two bouncers from a Halifax bar. An eerie echo of that tragedy occurred last Christmas Eve, when Mr. Sawyer sustained fatal injuries outside the Halifax Alehouse.

A security staffer involved in the recent altercation is now charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death. Bouncer Alexander Levy had already been facing an assault charge that was laid two months prior to Mr. Sawyers death. Had the new law been brought into force, he would have been obligated to report the assault charge to a regulator, who would have had the power to suspend his license.

The regulatory void has come into focus in the form of civil suits after the death of Mr. Sawyer.

In one case, his estate and parents, Lee and Scott Sawyer, are suing the Halifax Alehouse and its employee Alexander Levy for negligence. The suit claims Mr. Levy intentionally committed assault and battery on Mr. Sawyer, by among other things, choking him until and after he lost consciousness, causing his death. Mr. Sawyer was pronounced dead in hospital.

The suit, filed in Nova Scotia Supreme Court on Oct. 6, also claims the Alehouse owed a duty to the plaintiffs to ensure he was reasonably safe on the premises and was negligent, as they permitted Mr. Levy to be employed when they knew or ought to have known he posed a risk to the safety of customers, and as they failed to institute adequate training for employees to prevent assault and battery of customers.

Mr. Sawyers twin brother, Kyle Sawyer, is also suing the club for negligence, claiming he was injured that same night and the club failed to adequately train its staff.

The allegations have not been proven in court. The Alehouse has not yet filed a statement of defence.

The Alehouse is also facing disciplinary charges at the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board in relation to the death of Mr. Sawyer and other alleged incidents.

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Nova Scotia Liberals call for province to finally bring bar bouncer ... - The Globe and Mail

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh visited Iqaluit on Friday alongside Nunavut MP Lori Idlout to meet with territorial politicians about the housing and cost-of-living crises.

Singh slammed the Liberals, citing in a press release that they are abandoning Nunavut and the North on essential issues like the territorys housing crisis and price-gouging by the North West Company.

In March 2022, the waitlist for public housing across Nunavut was 3,021 people. Two weeks ago, the Liberals announced an investment to build 21 housing units. The federal government is not meeting the needs of Nunavut, the press release added.

The federal government committed to close the infrastructure gap by 2030 by aggressively investing in housing for Indigenous communities, which are at times plagued by long waitlists and overcrowded homes. In February, the NDP found it would take between 58 and 141 years to hit that goal, according to figures the party obtained at the time.

Its unclear what the Liberal governments fall economic statement, due in a few weeks, will signal about Ottawas commitment on housing. In August, Finance Canada asked all cabinet ministers to find around $15 billion in spending cuts ahead of the statement.

Ottawas austerity measures will not touch Indigenous infrastructure spending moving forward, Indigenous Services Canada Minister Patty Hajdu told Canadas National Observer in a previous interview.

Meanwhile, grocery retailers supplying food to dozens of Canada's most food-insecure communities, like Nunavut, are pocketing over half of a federal subsidy to reduce hunger, researchers reported in September. In Nunavut alone, nearly half of households can't afford enough to eat.

The $131-million annual Nutrition North subsidy is paid directly to most grocery retailers serving over 120 remote northern communities from Labrador to Yukon. The biggest retailer in northern Canada, the North West Company, reported $125 million in net income last year. It receives over half of the Nutrition North subsidy.

While Liberals are busy protecting the profits of the North West Company, the NDP is fighting to lower food prices for everyone, the NDP press release said.

With files from Marc Fawcett-Atkinson

Matteo Cimellaro / Canadas National Observer / Local Journalism Initiative

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NDP slam Liberals for inaction on housing shortfalls, grocer price ... - Canada's National Observer

~BW Uzelman

The housing affordability crisis is a serious and pervasive problem. Ontario and British Columbia have most actively addressed the issue, but all provincial governments have taken too long to react.

The federal government has been even more tardy. The Liberals proposed the $4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund in the election campaign in August of 2021. The Accelerator program was unsuitably named; it was eight months into the Liberals mandate before it was introduced in the 2022 Budget, 14 more months for the application portal to open and yet another three months for the first agreement with a municipality. In those 25 months, the housing shortage burgeoned into a severe housing deficit.

The Fraser Institute has just released a housing study. Josef Filipowicz, senior fellow at the institute, wrote, Never in the past half-century has population growth been so much higher than housing completions in so many parts of the country than in 2022.

Canadas housing crisis is a result of escalating demand and stagnating supply. A rapidly growing population has fueled demand, while government policy deficiencies have depressed housing construction. The Liberal government, first progressively, and in 2022 massively, increased the number of immigrants, foreign workers and foreign students admitted to the country. As well, governments at both levels have focused on helping buyers get into the housing market. These actions have pumped up demand, while government measures to supplement supply were absent.

Predictably, both housing availability and housing affordability have strikingly deteriorated. As more people competed for too few homes, vacancy rates (in the post-pandemic period in particular) have neared zero in many provinces, and home prices and rent have risen substantially. High interest rates have further driven up housing costs. The CMHC estimates that 5.8 million homes will have to be built by 2030 to restore the levels of affordability existing in 2003/2004.

The Fraser Institute research compares annual population growth with housing completions in the previous year. Filipowiczs data (garnered from Statistics Canada) shows from that from 1972 to the mid-2010s, population growth was one to two people per housing unit completed. From the mid-2010s to 2021, it was two to three people per completion, the only exception being the pandemic year of 2020. In 2022, population growth was a whopping 4.7 times the level of housing completions.

With the policies the federal Liberals had introduced, and had not introduced, the market was destined to fail. Only when public and opposition party pressure peaked and when the Liberals trailed the Conservatives by double digits in the polls, did they get serious about spurring housing supply. Then, in the autumn, there was a flurry of Housing Accelerator Fund agreements with municipalities, and the government soon created a GST exemption for new rental housing projects. These are the correct policy responses, but the Liberals had to be forced to deliver them, and they arrived much too late to alleviate the acute housing shortages and affordability problems visited on Canadians from 2021 through 2023.

PM Trudeau, earlier in 2023, drew criticism for stating that provision of housing is largely a provincial responsibility. He was correct. Housing primarily falls within provincial jurisdiction. But it is the federal government which controls the admission of immigrants and foreign workers and students. The Liberals have steadily increased admissions since 2015, and in 2022 they more than doubled the 2021 number, admitting over 1 million people. If the government was determined to engineer this escalation, it had a responsibility to help solve the pan-Canadian housing shortage. It has neglected this duty far too long.

It will not be the first time a federal government has intervened to develop housing. But the Liberals need to be careful to respect provincial jurisdiction. The GST exemption is the correct tool in this regard. It will do little to distort provincial policy, and will likely support the targets of provincial programs.

Benjamin Dachis of the C.D. Howe Institute urges the federal government to tread lightly with Accelerator funding. He writes, Direct intervention on city-by-city zoning decisions would be unwise and would likely only worsen the housing crisis. BC and Ontario already develop municipal housing targets and monitor achievement. Dachis suggests that the federal and provincial governments develop the targets together, and award Accelerator funding only to those meeting the targets. This is smart policy. It would avoid conflict between federal and provincial criteria and protect provincial jurisdiction.

Ottawa should also seriously consider stemming population growth for a time, until housing supply catches up with demand. This is unfortunate, but is now necessary. Lastly, all provinces would be wise to emulate the Ontario and BC models to boost housing supply. Those or similar policies are essential.

bruce

Bruce W Uzelman

I attended the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.I obtained a Bachelor of Arts, Advanced with majors in Economics and Political Science in 1982.

I have maintained a healthy interest in politics throughout my adult years, and wish to put that and my research skills to work as a political columnist.

Contact: urbangeneral@shaw.ca

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Uzelman: The Federal Liberals and the chasm between housing ... - Houston Today

The Victorian Liberals met on Wednesday night to preselect a candidate for the November 18 poll to replace former premier Daniel Andrews as Mulgrave MP.

Courtney Mann emerged as the winner, beating out three other preselection nominees.

Mr Mann ran as the Liberal candidate for Mulgrave at the 2010 state election and is a senior policy adviser in Mr Pesutto's office.

He also has previous experience as an adviser in the Baillieu/Napthine Victorian coalition governments.

Mr Pesutto said Mr Mann had deep roots in the electorate, having grown up in Mulgrave and lived there for 25 years.

"He is highly respected across the party and, if elected, would provide a strong voice for the people of Mulgrave in the Victorian parliament," he said in a statement.

Labor holds the seat on a healthy 10.2 per cent two-party-preferred margin but it could be reduced following the retirement of Mr Andrews last month after more than 20 years as the local member.

Dandenong mayor Eden Foster, who grew up within Mulgrave's suburbs of Noble Park and Springvale, has been locked in as Labor's pick to succeed him.

Ms Foster's fellow councillor Rhonda Garad was preselected as the Victorian Greens' candidate.

Ian Cook, who is suing the Victorian health department after he was ordered to shut his catering business over the listeriosis-linked death of an elderly woman, confirmed he would recontest the seat after collecting the second most first-preference votes last year.

Nominations for the Mulgrave by-election close next week.

It will be the second Victorian state by-election this year after the Liberals retained Warrandyte in Melbourne's northeast following the retirement of veteran MP Ryan Smith, in a poll Labor did not contest.

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Liberals name staffer, ex-candidate as by-election pick - Shepparton News

ATLANTA--

Hundreds of Black scholars gathered in Atlanta over the weekend to participate in the 11th annual conference of the Black Doctoral Network (BDN).

Now in its 11th year, this years conference included keynote addresses by author and entrepreneur Dr. George Fraser, and Dr. Kris Marsh, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Maryland. Past speakers have included a wide range of prominent scholars, most notably Drs. William Julius Wilson, Cornel West, Julianne Malveaux and anti-racist writer and activist Tim Wise.

This is our biggest conference where weve had the most first-time attendees, said Dr. Deandra S. Taylor, executive director and conference chair of the BDN. One of the big things with our conference is networking and collaboration, she said, adding that dozens of sessions from all academic disciplines were included across the three-days of the conference.Jessica O. Stamps, a doctoral student at Howard University presents at the conference.

Whether youre a student, a scholar, a veteran in your field, there is always something here for you either to deposit or to receive, said Taylor, who noted that BDN is looking to expand its programming efforts beyond the national conference held every October and will continue to host its Western Regional conference in Los Angeles in the spring.

The BDN conference has become the go-to place for Black scholars looking to address some of the nation's most vexing challenges. The sessions are solutions- oriented and participants are strongly encouraged to take an interdisciplinary approach to tackling some of these issues through participatory research.

This years conference was supported by a number of institutions and organizations including Vanguard Sports Academy, the Educational Testing Service (ETS), Loyola Marymount University and Nova Southeastern University.

Some of the workshop topics included Marginalized & Minoritized: Perspectives on Serving Students of Color in Higher Education, Optimizing STEM Throughout the United States, and Strategies to Support Black Transgender Students.

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Scholars Gather in Atlanta for Black Doctoral Network - Diverse: Issues in Higher Education