(NB-RCMP-Shooting-Investigation)
The six chiefs of the Wolastoqey Nation in New Brunswick say interactions between Indigenous people and law enforcement “too frequently” end in violence or death.
The Wolastoqey chiefs say they are joining Mi’kmaq chiefs in calling for an inquiry into systemic racism within the province’s justice system in reaction to the recent killing of an Indigenous man by a Mountie conducting a wellness check.
Chief Ross Perley of the Tobique First Nation, which is part of the Wolastoqey Nation, says the death of Steve “Iggy” Dedam is the result of systemic racism.
RCMP have confirmed that two officers were sent to Elsipogtog First Nation in eastern New Brunswick where they confronted an armed man in mental distress, and after failing to subdue him with a stun gun, one of the officers shot and killed him. (The Canadian Press)
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(NS-Doctors-Wait-List)
Nova Scotia’s N-D-P wants Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor.
The province’s online health data portal has not updated its records since June 1st, when more than 160-thousand people were on the wait-list for a primary care physician or nurse practitioner.
N-D-P Leader Claudia Chender says releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
Karen Oldfield, interim C-E-O of Nova Scotia Health, says the registry hasn’t been updated publicly because the health authority is in the process of verifying who’s on it, and that work should be completed before its released. (The Canadian Press)
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(NL-Home-Invasion)
Police in Newfoundland and Labrador are asking the public’s help in finding two people who have an arrest warrant following an alleged violent home invasion.
They say officers received a report on Sunday around 7 p-m alleging a number of people had entered a home in Sheshatshiu, where bear spray was used and residents were assaulted with baseball bats.
Police say three people are arrested and they have warrants for two men.
They say the men have a raft of charges including possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, four counts of administering a noxious substance and four counts of assault with a weapon. (The Canadian Press)
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(NB-Fatal-Collision)
R-C-M-P in New Brunswick say a 77-year-old woman has died following a two-vehicle collision.
They say officers responded to a report of a two-vehicle collision on Irving Boulevard in Bouctouche on Saturday evening.
They say they believe the collision happened when the woman, who was driving an S-U-V failed to yield to oncoming traffic, and was hit by a car.
Police say she died at the scene as a result of her injuries while the driver and passenger of the car were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. (The Canadian Press)
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(NS-Emergency-Health)
The president of Nova Scotia’s ambulance service says there’s been an improvement in ambulance response times so far this year.
Matthew Crossman, of Emergency Medical Care told a legislature’s committee yesterday that average response times are down from 36 minutes to 18 minutes provincewide.
Crossman attributes the improvement to the use of a fixed-wing transport ambulance that transfers patients longer distances and clinical programs such as one that frees up vehicles by allowing paramedics to discharge some less seriously injured patients at the scene of their treatment rather than taking them to hospital.
Last September, provincial auditor general Kim Adair released a report that found average response times had grown between two and five per cent annually between 2017 and 2022. (The Canadian Press)
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(NS-Tidal-Left-Behind)
Residents of a small Nova Scotia community are concerned about who will take away four train cars of concrete sitting in their harbour after a tidal company went bankrupt.
The cars were originally intended as moorings for a tidal power project planned by Occurrent Power — which last week entered bankruptcy proceedings.
Last year, each container was each filled with about 50-thousand pounds of concrete, then floated to their current location — where they disappear from sight when tides are high.
Local recreational fishers like Barb Gould say they’re worried someone’s boat is going to hit the containers leading to a serious accident, injury or even a fatality, and are calling on Transport Canada and the province to get them out of the area. (The Canadian Press)
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