OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree admitted Thursday that his government’s first attempt at major reform of police and intelligence agencies’ warrantless search powers was imperfect.
 

But he told MPs on the Commons Public Safety committee that he was still committed to getting law enforcement new lawful powers to obtain or intercept information without a warrant that were first suggested in the Liberals’ spring “Strong Borders Act” bill C-2.
 

C-2 has come under heavy fire from privacy and civil rights advocates for proposing police and intelligence agencies be able to compel any service provider — be they doctors, lawyers, therapists, clinics or banks, etc. — to say if they’ve served an individual, when, where and the “nature of the services” provided. All without a warrant.
 

Another controversial section proposed a new law that compelled electronic service providers to create what many called a “digital back door” that would make it easier for police and intelligence agencies to access their data with the appropriate warrant.
 

“Canada is the only Five Eyes country that does not have a lawful access regime, and C-2 tries to address that, and I would admit, imperfectly,” Anandasangaree told committee members Thursday.
 

“We will work with law enforcement, and we will work with all parties, to ensure that a lawful access regime that is in line with Charter principles will be passed by this House,” he added.
 

The ability to obtain Canadians’ information and intercept communications, known as “lawful access,” is one of the most intrusive powers afforded to police and intelligence agencies.
 

Lawful access rules are perennially in the middle of a tug-of-war between the needs of law enforcement to investigate threats and Canadians’ rights and expectations of privacy.
 

Intelligence and police agencies have long complained that they face “significant challenges” in securing lawful access because existing rules are antiquated and poorly adapted to the digital world.
 

A recent report studying lawful access by an intelligence watchdog committee of parliamentarians largely agreed with those concerns. The report called on the government to give law enforcement the “tools, policies, and lawful authorities they require” to investigate threats in the digital age.
 

“If left unaddressed, these challenges will undermine Canada’s national security in the long term by increasingly hampering the ability of CSIS and the RCMP to fulfil their respective mandates,” read the report.
 

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government took a first stab at the issue in the spring with C-2. But as opposition parties pushed back on the bill, the Liberals tabled a new version of C-2 (numbered C-12) without the controversial lawful access portions on Wednesday.
 

But C-2 remains in Parliament and will still eventually be studied in committee.
 

On Thursday, Anandasangaree said many police forces told him they were “deeply disappointed” to see the lawful access sections removed from C-12.
 

Speaking to reporters after the committee meeting, RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme said he would continue pushing for lawful access rules.
 

“I’m confident that the minister and I and other police forces will do everything we can to get lawful access back in there,” Duheme said.
 

After multiple rounds of grilling by Conservative MPs on crime rates across the country Thursday, Anandasangaree also accused many municipalities of underfunding local police services for up to two decades.
 

“Over the years, funding for policing have not kept up with the demands of policing and the evolving nature of what police have to do today, which includes mental health issues around drugs, issues around addictions,” he told the committee.
 

“Frankly, I think for the last two decades or so, we have not been investing in policing,” he added.
 

The underfunding is “very much at the local level,” he noted, although there is a “growing realization” that municipalities need to invest in policing.
 

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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It feels like spitting season for TV viewers. There’s a conjunction in spitting-intensive sports this month as the puck drops on the NHL season and the Blue Jays continue their post-season play into the American League Championship series. If you’re like most viewers, you are probably wondering: What’s with all the spitting?

What sports are known for spitting?

No sport is expectorate-free, but baseball is the obvious one. Players, coaches and even managers are often seen on camera during games, sipping and spitting out water or sports drinks, spitting out sunflower seeds or just plain spitting.

“I think it’s just almost second nature,” said major league player

Justin Turner in 2020

, when the league was trying to ban spitting and high-fives during the pandemic. “Spitting for baseball players is like blinking.”

Turner, who played 91 games with the Jays last year before being traded to the Seattle Mariners, added: “It’s not even just spitting on the ground, you know. A lot of us have routines and habits.”

Turner noted that pitchers will sometimes spit into their glove before a pitch. He also mentioned  David Ortiz, formerly with the Boston Red Sox, who “hit a lot of big home runs, but is famous for spitting into his batting gloves before every pitch and when he stepped in the box.”

Hockey is up there too. A post on sports commentary site

TheBruinsBlog

tried to unpack the reasons and came up with a huge list that included dry throats from heavy breathing in cold air, chewing gum or sunflowers seeds, staying focused through a repetitive routine, and even just superstition, and the belief that spitting can bring good luck.

An interview

from a decade ago

with former and then-current baseball players on the Minnesota Twins backed up some of this thinking. Said one player: “When you play the game you have to have something to entertain you. Otherwise you plain go crazy.”

Another remarked: “You get a lot of nervous energy … so you kind of need something that distracts you.” A third said the habit starts in the sandlot, as little kids would try to emulate their big-league heroes.

The exception to the rule would seem to be basketball, perhaps because it’s more “indoors” than even a domed stadium, and because spit on the playing surface could be dangerous.

In an

interview on the subject

, Josh Labandeira, a former player with the Montreal Expos who also played basketball and wrestled, said he would spit during baseball games but not the other sports.

“It’d be like spitting on your kitchen floor,” he said.

So what’s the real reason?

It’s probably a combination of factors, backed by a little science and a lot of psychology. For instance, research

as far back as 2013

showed that rinsing and then spitting out a carbohydrate-containing solution was associated with improved high-intensity endurance during exercise.

One study

noted that cyclists who rinsed with a drink containing maltodextrin (a sugar) for five seconds performed significantly better in one-hour time trials than those who only rinsed with water. Brain images showed the sugar was noticed by cells that stimulate motivation.

In a recent

New York Times

article, primary care physician and running expert Dr. Juliet McGrattan explained that exercise increases the buildup of a protein, MUC5B, which can cause stickier saliva and increase the urge to spit.

Is there a downside?

There certainly can be. Aside from the “ick” factor for some fans, the consequence of spit landing on another player or an official can be disastrous.

In a

recent NFL game

between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles, star defensive lineman Jalen Carter was thrown out of the game for spitting on Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott. Carter was also given a one-game suspension, but since he was thrown out before play even began, officials decided that could count.

Digging back a little further brings to mind a

late-season game

in 1996 between the Blue Jays and the Baltimore Orioles that saw Roberto Alomar called out on strikes in the first inning by home-plate umpire John Hirschbeck.

Alomar angrily contested the call on his way back to the dugout and was ejected from the game. He then returned to shout at Hirschbeck, spitting in the umpire’s face as he did so. That earned him a five-game suspension. The two would eventually

patch things up

, making it water under the bridge.

Even before that,

TV’s Seinfeld

made fun of spitting in baseball with an 1992 episode that involved Keith Hernandez of the New York Mets spitting on Kramer. In 1988, the original

Naked Gun movie

also featured a scene of players and fans spitting up a storm.

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Apple has introduced a new feature on some of its watch models meant to alert users to signs of chronic high blood pressure. Also known as hypertension, it affects approximately 8 million Canadians.

However,

sufferers often have no symptoms

.

It is frequently undiagnosed and has become known as
“the silent killer.”

In a report about the new tool,

Running Magazine

says even runners could be suffering from high blood pressure but not know it.

“This number will only grow as our population ages,”

Dr. Heather Ross, head of cardiology at University Health Network’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre

says on Apple Canada’s website.

“Despite being treatable, it frequently goes undetected and is a leading contributor to cardiovascular disease, including stroke, coronary disease, dementia, and heart failure,” says Ross. “One of the greatest challenges is improving screening to enable earlier diagnosis and treatment. That’s why hypertension notifications on Apple Watch are a true breakthrough and could be a real game changer.”

The tool is now available in over 150 countries and territories worldwide.

Health Canada
gave its approval
of the new feature at the end of September.

While the Apple watch doesn’t take blood pressure readings akin to type that a patient would get in a doctor’s office, Apple says it reviews data collected by a watch sensor over 30-day periods and will notify users if consistent signs of hypertension are detected. These notifications provide users with the ability, the company says, to consider making potentially lifesaving behavioural changes or start treatment to reduce their risk of serious heart-health events.

If users receive a hypertension notification, it is recommended they take a measure of their blood pressure with a third-party blood pressure cuff and share the results with their provider at their next visit, so consideration of a diagnosis and treatment can occur when necessary. Users will get access to a detailed report to share with their healthcare provider.

The

hypertension notification feature was developed

with advanced machine learning and training data from multiple studies totalling over 100,000 participants, according to Apple. Its performance was then validated in a clinical study of over 2,000 participants.

While hypertension notifications will not detect all instances of hypertension, Apple expects the feature to notify over one million people with undiagnosed hypertension within the first year.

The hypertension notifications feature, says Apple, is available only to adults aged 22 and over, who have no previous hypertension diagnosis. The company warns against using the feature during pregnancy, since blood pressure may be temporarily lower or higher than normal.

It is

available on

Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10 and Series 11 models and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and 3 models. It requires the paired iPhone to be running watchOS 26. Users can set up hypertension notifications in the Health app on iPhone by following the instructions set out

here

.

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A Manitoba man who stabbed an acquaintance to death in “an unprovoked attack” over a missing cellphone has seen his prison sentence reduced by a year due to his Indigenous status and because he took his victim to hospital, where the man later died from internal bleeding.
 

Dean Richard Bell pleaded guilty to manslaughter for “fatally” stabbing Calvin Chartrand on Jan. 13, 2024, while they were walking past each other on Main Street in Swan River, Man. 
 

“I would impose a sentence of eight years,” provincial court Judge Geoffrey H. Bayly wrote in a recent decision.
 

“However, I believe that the Gladue factors relevant to this offender mitigate his moral culpability. Additionally, the fact that he made efforts to ensure his victim received medical treatment is also significant. Taking these two considerations into account, I will impose the jointly recommended sentence of seven years’ custody.”
 

Gladue principles were set out in a Supreme Court of Canada decision over a quarter century back. They indicate sentencing judges must consider the unique circumstances of Indigenous offenders, as well as systemic issues like the impact of residential schools, to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in Canada’s prisons.
 

Bell, now 31, was the “aggressor” who instigated the confrontation with Chartrand, “and deliberately escalated the conflict by producing and using a knife,” said the judge. “The attack was unprovoked, preemptive, and akin to an act of revenge. Furthermore, (Bell and his half-brother) engaged in a two-on-one assault against the victim, who was vulnerable due to being outnumbered and unarmed.”
 

But some factors, including Bell’s Indigenous status, suggest his “conduct may lean toward a lower degree of culpability,” Bayly said.
 

“The offender’s history of victimization, trauma, and cultural disenfranchisement is intricately linked to our country’s shameful legacy of colonialism and attempts at cultural genocide,” said the judge.
 

Bayly noted “Chartrand lost his life needlessly due” to Bell’s actions.
 

“It is crucial to consider the degree of force and brutality involved, as well as whether the crime was premeditated, deliberate, or provoked,” the judge said. “Additionally, the impact of systemic and historical disadvantages faced by Indigenous offenders must be acknowledged to fully contextualize culpability.”
 

The court heard the circumstances behind the stabbing “began to unfold a few days before” Chartrand’s death.
 

The two men were together at a home when Chartrand asked Bell to leave, said the sentencing decision, which notes Bell refused. 
 

“This refusal was not received well, and a confrontation occurred,” said the judge.
 

Bell, “later, would tell the RCMP that (Chartrand) had threatened him and taken his cell phone.”
 

Fast forward to Jan. 13, 2024, when Bell was drinking beer and playing video games at the home where he was staying.
 

“At some point, he was joined by his older half-brother, Tyrone Guiboche,” said the judge. “In the early evening, the two brothers went for a walk together along Main Street in Swan River.”
 

By chance, they encountered Chartrand and his girlfriend, Danielle Audy, “who were also walking along on Main Street, but on the opposite side of the street,” said the judge. 
 

“After seeing Chartrand, the offender and his brother verbally confronted him and demanded the return of the missing cell phone. The brothers initiate a physical altercation in the middle of the road, with the offender producing a knife and stabbing Chartrand twice — once in the face and once in the left buttock.”
 

It is worth noting, Bayly said, “that the stab wound to the face occurred first, and after it happened, the offender’s brother said words to the effect ‘that’s enough.’ However, the attack did not end, and moments later, Tyrone Guiboche joined in by physically attacking the victim. The offender, with his brother assisting, stabbed Chartrand a second time, this time in the buttock, inflicting a fatal wound.”
 

Chartrand “wailed” after the second stab wound, said the judge, which stopped the attack.
 

“Perhaps cognizant of the seriousness of the situation, the two brothers stopped attacking and decided to help by assisting Chartrand to the Swan River Health Centre,” said the judge.
 

“Unfortunately, Chartrand later died at the hospital from internal bleeding caused by the stab wound to the left buttock, which severed the internal iliac artery.”
 

Bell later “admitted to police that he stabbed Chartrand but claimed he acted in self-defence, citing previous threats and the taking of his phone,” Bayly wrote in a decision dated Oct. 2. 
 

 Bell “was raised primarily in the community of Birch River, Manitoba, by his father,” said the judge.
 

Their relationship is strained, and they haven’t spoken for four years due to the son’s substance abuse issues and “lifestyle choices,” Bayly said.
 

“He has experienced significant family loss, including the suicide of a sister and the recent death of a brother in a motor vehicle accident,” the judge said of Bell.
 

After reaching the age of 18, Bell reported “consuming alcohol daily,” said the decision. “He began using marijuana at age 15. He started using methamphetamine and cocaine around age 26, often consuming in binges lasting about a week on each occasion. So pervasive was his abuse of methamphetamine that he began experiencing auditory hallucinations and has been treated with antipsychotic injections for methamphetamine-induced psychosis, both in the community and in custody. He reports that the medication helps reduce the voices.”
 

The court heard Bell left school, where he was bullied, in Grade 11, and has held several jobs since, including gas station attendant, hardware store clerk, and with a town work crew.
 

Bell described himself as being “socially awkward,” said the decision, which notes he “has been a victim of multiple assaults and that he chooses to carry a knife for ‘protection.’ In terms of his connection to culture and community, the offender has a limited connection to Indigenous culture but is interested in learning more.”
 

RCMP officers found Bell’s half-brother, Guiboche, who was wanted for manslaughter, earlier this week after tracking him down to a home in Swan River.

“As officers were attempting to arrest him, he broke free and fled out the back door,” said an RCMP news release describing the 41-year-old’s Oct. 6 capture.
 

“A short foot pursuit ensued, and police were forced to deploy their conducted energy weapon (Taser) to get him to comply. While officers were arresting him, he continued to fight while being placed in handcuffs and in the process, two officers sustained minor injuries.”
 

In addition to manslaughter and failing to attend court, Guiboche is now facing two counts each of resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.
 

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A thief who was part of a gang that stole a Patek Philippe watch worth more than $120,000 from Tim Hortons president Axel Schwan has been sentenced to two years in jail.

Ahmed Djidi, 26, was part of a gang that ripped the watch from Schwan’s wrist as he was walking through Mayfair, an upscale London, U.K. neighbourhood, on June 30 last year, according to

the Daily Mail

.

Schwan is

president of Tim Hortons’ Canadian and U.S. business

.

Djidi appeared in a London court on Thursday, where he was sentenced, aided by an Arabic interpreter, to 22 months behind bars. He had already

admitted to one count of theft

at a court hearing back in June,

Court News U.K.

reported at the time.

However, he already served the time in custody and was

due to be released today.

During the sentencing hearing,

reports the Daily Mail

, Judge Christopher Hehir said to Djidi: ‘You had two accomplices. The three of you waited on a busy street looking to identify any passer-by with a valuable wristwatch that you could steal. You stole a Patek Philippe watch from Mr Schwan who was walking on a Sunday afternoon with his wife. Some degree of force was used to grab the watch from his wrist. The effect on him and his wife has been considerable. This is a serious offence, and only an immediate prison sentence is appropriate in your case.”

 

The

judge remarked

that Djidi was in the U.K. illegally and has “been in trouble” for theft before. For example in 2022, said Judge Hehir, Djidi received a community service order for a distraction theft of luggage at a London railway station.

In the Schwan case, the judge continued, the theft was planned. “You played your part as a lookout with two others. You are not the one who pulled the watch from Mr Schwan’s wrist, but you are equally guilty for what happened.”

In considering Djidi’s future,

Judge Hehir went on to suggest deportation

might be in the offing. He remarked that he couldn’t see how Djidi remaining in the U.K. would be “conducive to the public good.” However, the judge conceded that immigration matters were not within his court’s authority.

Meanwhile, Djidi will be subject to a “criminal behaviour order” for seven years, preventing him from entering the London borough of Westminster or interacting with his two accomplices.

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A Halifax gym says it has removed race-based pricing after “feedback and criticism” about a discounted rate intended “to foster diversity and inclusion.”

R Studios, which has five locations in Nova Scotia, came under fire this week after posts on social media pointed out the discount.

Canadian veteran

Jeff Evely said on X

that charging “double for white people” compared to Black and Indigenous People of Colour (BIPOC) customers was in violation of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act. Evely is also a People’s Party of Canada candidate for Sydney—Glace Bay.

A business cannot discriminate against customers based on race, according to

section five of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act

.

Evely posted screenshots of the gym’s website, showing one studio drop in pass for $30 and another for $15, which was labelled as the “BIPOC drop in rate.” The discount is no longer available on the gym’s website and it has since posted

a statement on social media

.

“In a fitness industry that has long been predominantly white and often inaccessible, we have taken pride in being leaders who actively promote diversity through our hiring practices, in-studio equity and inclusion training, and the creation of our IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility) Committee, with ongoing efforts to ensure all individuals feel seen and represented within our walls,” it said.

“Recently, our organization has received feedback and criticism surrounding one of those efforts, a discounted membership created by our BIPOC team and IDEA Committee to help foster diversity and inclusion.”

The studio said it has historically offered such pricing options, which comes from a “place of compassion.” However, the statement said, “we understand that it has been interpreted by some as exclusive.”

It said it would be launching a fund to provide access to memberships for those who face “financial or systemic barriers.”

According to its website, R Studios’ first location opened in 2014. “This space was created for the misfits, the non-conformists, the everyday person,” according to owner Connie McInnes.

A nonprofit group in Halifax that offers circus lessons, from juggling to acrobatics, called

Halifax Circus

, says BIPOC discounts are available upon request.

VIA Rail offers

a 33 per cent discount

for Indigenous travellers as seen on its website. Advertisements for the discount appeared on Facebook in 2019, C2C Journal reported.

“I can understand why people may find it objectionable to vary prices by race, as we aren’t used to seeing discrimination in this form,” Bruce Pardy, a Queen’s University law professor, told the publication in 2019.

“But it is not inconsistent with the already very objectionable idea that you can have different rules for different groups of people across a broad range of other areas.”

In 2017, a filmmaker in B.C. faced backlash for charging

white men more for movie tickets

, calling it a “justice-pricing model,” in which the white men were charged $15 and other customers only $10, according to The Canadian Press. He said he stood by his decision and it was not a stunt.

In 2021, the B.C. Human Rights Commissioner granted special permission to

allow for the preferential hiring of candidates who self-identify as BIPOC

for a five-year term at the Burnaby Public Library and other organizations. A 2024 library report said that hiring managers only looked at resumes “from white candidates if there isn’t a sufficient pool of qualified racialized candidates.”

In December 2024, an event at a community centre in Montreal was cancelled after

ticket prices for members of the BIPOC community were discounted

by roughly 40 per cent.

R Studios and Halifax Circus did not immediately respond to National Post’s request for comment.

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Two decades after a watershed report on errors and unintended injuries in Canada’s hospitals shook the health-care sector, tens of thousands of Canadians continue to be harmed during a hospital stay — many of them, multiple times, new data show.

One in 17 hospitalizations in 2024-2025 — representing more than 153,000 people — resulted in someone experiencing a potentially preventable harm such as a drug error, hospital-acquired infection, a “patient accident” like a fall or radiation burn or some other incident serious enough to require treatment or a prolonged stay, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

In a quarter of those cases, people experienced two or more harmful “events” during their stay.

The data are based on 2.6 million hospital stays. Even then, the numbers don’t capture the full magnitude of the problem. “Near misses,” meaning errors that didn’t reach the patient, aren’t captured. Nor are harms involving people with mental health or substance use diagnoses, harms that occur in emergency departments or harms that start in hospital but aren’t detected until the person is sent home. The report also excludes data from Quebec.

The overall rate of harm has remained at six per cent for the fifth year in a row, higher than pre-COVID years. After spiking in the early pandemic years, “we haven’t really rebounded,” said Melanie Josee Davidson, director of health system performance at CIHI.

“The whole health system is still reverberating from the COVID period and still finding its feet,” she said.

When things go wrong it’s usually down to multiple, complex factors, patient safety experts said. But 21 years after a report known simply as the Baker-Norton report estimated as many as 23,000 people die in Canada’s acute-care hospitals each year from adverse events, “we’ve taken our eyes off the ball,” said Dr. Ward Flemons, a professor of medicine at the University of Calgary.

When the Baker-Norton report — by the University of Toronto’s Ross Baker and Peter Norton of the University of Calgary — came out, “it shook everybody and woke everybody up” from hospital boards and CEOs to medical and nursing stations, Flemons said.

“There was a lot of focus on patient safety, but, like any initiative, it fades over time if there isn’t a constant pounding of the drum.”

Throw in COVID, “and it took focus away from, how do we make current care better, to, how do we keep people alive during a horrible pandemic?”

But Canada is also one of the few countries in the world without a national patient safety plan, efforts at improving hospital safety are “fragmented, and for the most part, voluntary,” and there’s no concerted spotlight on safety, Baker and co-author Leslee Thompson write in

Healthcare Quality

.

Rather, it’s “much like a game of snakes and ladders,” they said. “We make advances, but too often we slide back due to shifting priorities, insufficient funding and resource capacity,” they said.

Concerns have also long been raised about a culture of secrecy that keeps errors from being reported, and full and frank disclosures made to patients and families when they do happen.

“The extent of unsafe care is unknown to patients and the workforce,” Baker and Thompson wrote.

“To advance a safety culture, transparency must be valued, not weaponized.”

Few cases of harm involve true negligence, or, rarer still, a wilful, malicious intent to harm. Bad “outcomes” happen in the best hospitals. However, many harms are avoidable or at least potentially preventable.

In 2024/2025, six harms made up the majority of cases in Canadian hospitals outside Quebec: electrolyte and fluid imbalances, urinary tract infections, delirium, pneumonia, “aspiration pneumonitis” (when things meant to be in the stomach go down the wrong tube into the lungs, causing inflammation) and post-surgery or post-procedural infections.

People harmed while in hospital stay, on average, five times longer than those who aren’t — nearly a full month, 28 days, versus six days for someone who isn’t harmed.

In addition to tying up critically needed beds, that longer length of stay costs more: an average hospitalization is just under $10,000. The cost of caring for someone who experiences harm is roughly $45,000, about four-and-a-half times more.

The data show there were 55,929 hospital-acquired infections in 2024-25, 6,769 “patient accidents,” 33,470 procedure-associated harms, like a puncture wound during surgery, and 86,817 medication-associated conditions.

Men were slightly more likely than women to experience harm, while the crude rate overall was slightly higher in urban versus rural or remote hospitals.

More than 21,600 people developed delirium, a sudden and serious state of confusion and disorganized thinking. It’s often age-related and the result of “one thing compounding another,” Flemons said, like being in unfamiliar surroundings and interrupted sleep.

While it’s a known risk factor for dementia and death, delirium often goes unrecognized. People with fractured hips and cardiac disease are at increased risk.

“But it doesn’t mean there isn’t anything we can do about it,” Flemons said. “You watch the drugs you give to people. You watch their fluid balance. You try to get them out of hospital as soon as possible. You try to get them up and mobile. Nice to say, hard to do, but you get them into rooms where they can sleep at night.”

Aspiration pneumonitis can be reduced by making sure people can swallow safely and properly, rather than just putting a tray in front of them and say, “Enjoy your dinner,” Flemons said.

Falls account for most patient accidents. “We also see fractures, or dislocations,” CIHI’s Davidson said. A frail patient might suffer a fracture or dislocated bone when moved. “It’s not necessarily that you got up and fell out of bed. But during the process of care there might be trauma to the body.”

CIHI doesn’t track deaths related to hospital harm. The study is based on a discharge abstract database. “When a patient is discharged home, we’re able to look back on their process of care,” Davidson said.

For patients, communication is essential, she said. “If a patient or a loved one is receiving care, asking questions about the care you’re about to receive, what it will feel like, what to expect, and to speak up if it doesn’t feel right, or if it’s not what they were told.”

Too much secrecy still shrouds hospital harm, others said.

Flemons is a co-author of a 2022 book on the lessons learned during a devastating drug mix-up that killed two Calgary patients, an elderly woman and middle-aged man who were in intensive care with kidney failure when they were given the wrong solution during dialysis. Both were given potassium chloride, which can stop the hearts in minutes, instead of sodium chloride.

At the time, the dialysis solution wasn’t commercially available. “So we were mixing it up in our own central pharmacy. And one fateful day, the pharmacy people mixed up the wrong solution,” Flemons said. An investigation found the fatal error was the result of “just a whole series of events that ultimately culminated in that tragedy,” he said.

“But we actually (publicly) spoke about it, and you don’t hear about that very much anymore.”

When errors aren’t talked about openly “that sends the wrong culture message, which is, we kind of know bad things are happening … (but) we don’t really appreciate, until a report like (CIHI’s) comes out, how cumulatively it affects so many people,” Flemons said.

Canada needs to go back 20 years, “to the concerted effort that happened after the Baker-Norton report,” he said. It’s one thing to have Canada-wide data, he said. “We need to get it down to province-wide, down to institutions and then get that into boardrooms, so that people are actually looking at it and asking some difficult but necessary questions, which is, ‘What is our strategy to change this locally?’”

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Canada and the United States “are much more coordinated” than it may appear, says Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“There is still a very deep, enduring and reinforcing relationship between Canada and the United States. As Canadians, we benefit from that,” said Carney via video call to the U.S.-Canada Summit in Toronto on Wednesday.

The comments were made in conversation with Gerald Butts, the vice chairman of Eurasia Group, a political risk analysis and consulting company. Butts was former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s principal secretary from 2015 to 2019.

Carney pointed out that the two neighbours were in line when it came to border security and defence. “Canada is quadrupling its defence expenditures between the end of last year and the end of this decade,” he said, adding that Canada had been “lagging.”

Canada and the U.S. were also on the same page when it came to major global conflicts, he said, such as the ongoing war in Russia and Ukraine, and in the Middle East.

Carney’s remarks come a day after a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House. The conversation between the leaders was friendly in tone, but little was accomplished in terms of

a new tariff deal

for Canadians. Trump said there was a “natural conflict” between the U.S. and Canada. He attributed this mainly to the proximity of the two countries and competing industries, like the auto sector.

Although there were areas where Trump and Carney did not see eye to eye — Carney recognized a Palestinian state, while Trump did not — Carney still said he endorsed the president’s Gaza plan that could bring the Israel-Hamas war to an end.

“I shouldn’t overplay it, but the momentum is there,” he said.

As for tariffs, Carney insisted that Canada had “the best deal of anyone” — but “it can be better.”

“We are in a position because of the integration, because of the level of commercial relationships, other ties between our countries, where we do have the best trade deal with the United States right now,” said Carney. “It does matter that 85 per cent of our trade is tariff-free. It does matter. Our average tariff is five and a half per cent.”

He said he was aware there were “real issues” within certain areas and he was “deliberately” working on the steel, aluminum and energy sectors to make progress. With respect to aluminum, for example, Carney said there was a discussion about whether it was the best use of energy to manufacture it for the United States, seeing as Canada produces 60 per cent of the supply to the U.S., but there’s a 50 per cent tariff.

But Carney made clear that it was Canada on his mind everyday, not the U.S.

“I don’t get up first thing in the morning, think about the U.S. relationship,” he said, “As much as I love the U.S., I think about Canada. I think about building Canada.”

With the Liberal budget

set to be released this fall

, Carney said in front of a crowd of Canadians and Americans in the business sector, that the takeaway should be that “we’re building this country.”

“We’re taking our responsibility seriously as government in terms of helping to build the enabling infrastructure,” he said.

Nearing the end of the discussion, Butts turned to one of the most Canadian topics available: hockey. He asked the prime minister about NHL star

Connor McDavid’s contract extension

with the Edmonton Oilers.

“I’m very pleased that he signed, and it’s going to be a hell of a season,” said Carney. He also added, given that the conference Wednesday was being held in Toronto, that a journalist pointed out during his meeting with Trump that Canadians were travelling the U.S. much less.

The journalist asked what would bring more Canadians to the U.S. and Carney said he replied: “Well, we’re going to be coming down for the World Series.” The Toronto Blue Jays are a contender for the Major League Baseball’s final showdown. The Jays face off against the New York Yankees Wednesday night.

• Trump interrupts Carney to talk ‘merger of Canada and the United States’
• John Ivison: Carney plays sidekick on the Trump Show better than he plays adversary

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OTTAWA — The Carney government tabled a new version Wednesday of its flagship national and border security bill without a host of contentious search powers for law enforcement, but is not giving up on the first, controversial version of the legislation.
 

Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree tabled Bill C-12, which is a near-copy of
the “Strong Borders Act” (C-2) his government
tabled in the spring as U.S. President Donald Trump accused Canada of poorly defending the shared border from drug smugglers.
 

The new bill proposes vast changes to Canadian border security, data collection and sharing by federal authorities, anti-money laundering rules, the asylum claim system and the Canadian Coast Guard.
 

But missing from the new bill are sections of C-2 allowing law enforcement sweeping new powers such as opening mail or demanding any service provider fork over limited subscriber information without a warrant. Also missing is the restriction on cash payments or donations over $10,000.
 

But that doesn’t mean the government is backtracking on those powers, the minister said, as the original bill C-2 will remain in Parliament and be debated separately.
 

Anandasangaree told reporters that by removing the most contentious elements of C-2 from C-12, he expects the latter bill would garner “broader support” in Parliament. But in the same breath, he said that changes were not done to placate opposition parties.
 

“I do anticipate the Bill C-12 will have a great traction and likely go through the committee phase early,” he said, adding that he hopes debate on the new legislation will begin in the next several weeks.
 

When asked why he tabled a new bill instead of simply amending the existing one, Anandasangaree said the amendment process was “quite cumbersome”.
 

He explained that the original bill was introduced “within days” of the Carney government’s election and that subsequent feedback over the summer pushed the government to draft a new bill.
 

With regards to border security, C-2 proposes to tighten rules around asylum claims, allow the RCMP to share information about registered sex offenders with domestic international partners and gives the Coast Guard a new protective security role.
 

Much of the “Strong Borders Act” tabled in June had little to do with securing the border and instead granted police and intelligence agencies new, and in some cases warrantless, legal tools to obtain or intercept information.
 

The bill has garnered intense criticism from privacy and civil liberty groups as well as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
On Wednesday, Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer said it was “embarrassing” that Anandasangaree was already changing the Carney government’s first bill.

The ability to obtain Canadians’ information and intercept communications, known as “lawful access,” is one of the most intrusive powers afforded to police and intelligence agencies.
 

Lawful access rules are perennially in the middle of a tug-of-war between the needs of law enforcement to investigate threats and Canadians’ rights and expectations of privacy.
 

Intelligence and police agencies have long complained that they face “significant challenges” in securing lawful access because existing rules are antiquated and poorly adapted to the digital world.
 

On Wednesday, Anandasangaree said he was “quite committed” to modernizing the lawful access regime, noting Canada lags significantly behind its Five Eyes intelligence sharing partners.
 

But privacy, civil liberty and even some national security advocates say the Liberals’ Bill C-2 is a profound overreach that gives police and intelligence services far too much warrantless power.
 

They point to sections of the spring bill that allow authorities to issue a demand letter to any public service provider requiring them to disclose some under information.
 

Anandasangaree incorrectly stated on Wednesday that the new power only allowed authorities to ask a service provider if an individual used their service. “That is the only question that can be asked. Beyond it… the police need to provide a warrant,” he said.
 

But the government’s own website states
that officers could demand that service providers also provide information about the “nature of the services” provided, if they have any information relating to that account, where those services were provided and for how long.
 

“We’re not just talking about Rogers, Telus and Bell here,” national security law expert Leah West explained on the
Secure Line podcast last month
. “Your doctor, your gynecologist, your Substack, your dog groomer, anyone who is providing a service.”
 

“What could be revealed is a lot more potentially privacy-intrusive because of how broad the application is.”
 

Authorities only needed a reasonable ground to suspect that an offence had been or may be committed to request the information. They did not require a judge’s approval via a warrant.
 

Another controversial section of the bill created what many called a “digital back door” via a new law that requires electronic service provides to make it easier for police and intelligence agencies to access their data.
 

The new law could compel an organization that uses any form of electronic services geared towards people in Canada or that operates in the country to implement tools to ensure data can be extracted and provided to authorities when mandated.
 

“It has the potential to introduce significant vulnerabilities into the systems we use every day for our most private communications and could also completely upend the practice of information-sharing that is the foundation for keeping the internet safe and secure,”
privacy lawyer David Fraser
wrote in July.
 

In a recent report, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians — an intelligence oversight committee of MPs and senators — largely agreed with law enforcement agencies’ concerns about lawful access and called on the government to carefully and incrementally address the issue.
 

Canadians would be “surprised to learn how difficult it actually is” for national security agencies to intercept communications and obtain information lawfully, the report noted.
 

“It is time for the government to act and provide the security and intelligence community with the tools, policies, and lawful authorities they require to do the work asked of them in the manner expected by Canadians which is responsive to and protective of their privacy.”
 

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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