On today’s CHMA daily news:
Chiefs disappointed with Premier Higgs,
a new lawsuit and new information on the Nova Scotia mass murder,
and CHMA checks in with Port Elgin’s PEDVAC community centre.
But first:
The province has reported just one new case of COVID-19 in the province.
One person in their 20’s, who works at the Campbellton Hospital but lives in Fredericton, has tested positive and is now self-isolating.
There are 29 active cases in the province, with four people in hospital.
In Nova Scotia, officials reported their eighth day with no new cases of COVID-19.
There are two people with active cases in Nova Scotia, both in hospital.
Across Canada a total of 386 new cases were reported yesterday. 41 people died, all in Ontario and Quebec.
The number of daily new cases in Canada has been dropping since a peak in mid-April.
Meanwhile worldwide, daily new case numbers are still growing.
Yesterday over 140,000 news cases were reported across the globe.
On Wednesday, Premier Blaine Higgs and several government ministers met by video conference with First Nations chiefs from all over New Brunswick.
Six Wolastoqey chiefs released a statement following the meeting saying they were disappointed in Higg’s response.
The chiefs say that Higgs is not prepared to recognized that bias and racism exist, and that he refused to support an inquiry.
The chiefs called on the legislature to support a motion for an inquiry, in hopes that it would, quote: “cause Premier Higgs to finally relent, listen to Indigenous and non- Indigenous voices and appoint this inquiry.”
A woman from Mirimachi is dead after a 2-vehicle highway crash outside Campbellton.
Richibucto RCMP believe the woman was driving a sedan when she crossed over the centre line and crashed into an oncoming SUV.
Police are still investigating the crash.
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Family members of victims of the April mass murder in Nova Scotia are proposing a class action suit against the RCMP and Attorneys General of Canada and Nova Scotia.
The proposed suit details issues with how the RCMP handled the events on April 18 and 19, including sending too few officers to Portapique, and not properly notifying the public of dangers.
The suit alleges that the force failed to investigate reports about the killer having illegal weapons, assaulting his spouse, and saying he wanted to kill a police officer.
The suit also says that after the killings, the RCMP acted in a “high-handed, self-serving and disrespectful manner.”
The proposed lawsuit says that police deliberately misled Andrew O’Brien—the husband of VON nurse and shooting victim Heather O’Brien— and the public by publicly stating that “nobody was pulled over in their car” by the murderer, who was dressed as an RCMP officer and driving a replica police cruiser.
Most disturbing of all, the suit alleges that the RCMP returned Heather O’Brien’s car to her grieving husband with, QUOTE: “gun casings and body parts still in the automobile.”
The proposed class action lawsuit has not been certified by the court, and the allegations have not been proven.
The is the second lawsuit related to the murders.
The first is filed against the estate of the murderer, which included at least one company registered in New Brunswick.
Maclean’s has published a report saying that the man who murdered 22 people in Nova Scotia in April had withdrawn $475,000 in cash 19 days before he went on his rampage.
The report by Paul Palango, Stephen Maher, and Shannon Gormley includes security videos from a Brinks office in Dartmouth showing the murderer arrive and leave with a bag.
The report quotes RCMP sources not authorized to speak for the force, speculating that the murderer was connected to the Hell’s Angels and possibly serving as a police informant.
The Sackville Farmer’s Market will expand into Bill Johnstone Memorial Park this Saturday.
The market has laid out a one-way traffic pattern around the park, with vendors spread throughout.
Mainstay market vendors, including Wysmykal Farm, Sky Shacks, and Joella McKiel’s Preserves, are returning to the market for the first week since COVID closure.
And finally today on the CHMA daily news, we have another instalment of The Check In.
This time, Erica Butler speaks with the executive director of PEDVAC — the Port Elgin community centre and service hub — to find out how they have been weathering the pandemic.
AUDIO: Check In PEDVAC
That’s it for the CHMA daily news.
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