JORDAN, BLAIR AND OTHER MINISTERS FOCUS ON FISHING DISPUTE
A news conference today with Federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair produced some pointed statements from both ministers. Blair says RCMP trained in de-escalation and crowd control are in place through Yarmouth and Digby Counties, and any more law-breaking will not be tolerated in the lobster fishery dispute. Jordan says all Canadians are now watching Nova Scotia. The Fisheries Minister says the ongoing dispute and violence along with property destruction over the past week is not the Nova Scotia she knows and loves. She says once we remove the criminals, vandals and online trolls, the real hard-working people in the fishery can be heard. Jordan says the issue is First Nations earning a livelihood on the water, and it’s time for fishing to bring Nova Scotians together instead of tearing them apart.
The province’s Heating Assistance Rebate Program (HARP) is once again available to low-income Nova Scotians.
Applications are now open for the fall and winter season with a rebate of up to $200 for low-income Nova Scotians who cover the cost of their own heat. To qualify for the program, the income threshold is $29,000 for a one-person household and $44,000 annually for households with more than one income earner. The applications are available at MLA’s offices and the Department of Community Services.
FLU SHOTS NOW AVAILABLE IN NOVA SCOTIA
All Nova Scotians over six months old are being encouraged to get a flu shot this year. The seasonal influenza vaccine is now available from most pharmacies, family doctors, family practice nurses, nurse practitioners and clinics. It can take up to two weeks for the vaccination to provide protection. Nova Scotians are encouraged to get vaccinated in the coming weeks to see the full benefit before the flu season’s traditional arrival in late December and into early January. There’ve been shortages of flu shots in some provinces, as people fear getting the flu will weaken their immune system during the COVID-19 pandemic.
More travel-related cases of COVID were counted in the province over the weekend, with 6 active cases in Nova Scotia as of this morning. Two of those were unveiled in Sunday’s provincial update. Contact tracing is going full-tilt, while more new cases turned up in New Brunswick over the weekend spanning Moncton, Campbellton and Saint John. So combined with yesterday’s numbers, New Brunswick is now confirming more than 100 active infections.
Public health officials also warned Sunday about a potential COVID-19 exposure on an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Halifax on Oct. 15th.
They say passengers in rows 21-27, seats D-E-F, are more likely to have been exposed on Air Canada Flight 604, which departed Toronto at8 o’clock that morning. The health authority says two Air Canada flights from Toronto to Halifax on Oct.12 also had possible COVID-19 exposures. There was also a warning about a possible exposure in a cab from the Halifax airport to a residence in Halifax on Oct. 12th between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Those cases were announced Saturday, and are connected to the Oct. 12th flights.
PETERS AMONG MANY NEW FEMALE FACES ON LOCAL COUNCILS
Dawn Peters says it’s exciting and it’s history in the making with so many new female faces sitting on local councils as a result of Saturday night’s voting results. She’s one of three new women elected to New Glasgow Town Council and only the 2nd woman to be elected in Ward 2. Peters tells us she’s looking forward to improved communication with the voters, relationships with business operators and better dialogue with the voters overall. Peters says the evidence shows, and it’s her experience, that women can often be better when it comes to political collaboration.
The portion of women sitting on Pictou County’s town and County councils rose from 18 per cent to 33 as a result of the weekend’s election count. The only local mayor to be voted out over the weekend is Shannon MacInnis in the Town of Trenton and he lost by 62 votes. That makes former police chief and Town Councillor Don Hussher the mayor-elect. MacInnis is now contemplating an appeal. Before he makes up his mind, MacInnis plans to meet with other council members this week. There’s also a theory that MacInnis might end up running provincially for the Liberals next year. He’s only telling us to “stay tuned on that.” Trenton’s four councillors at large are Steven Cotter, VJ Earle, Heather Hughes-Head and Nicole Leblanc.
Nancy Dicks won by a landslide in New Glasgow, and says she’s pleased to be sharing council chambers with what she calls “a good, diverse council with lots of great things ahead” She’ll be joined in New Glasgow Town Hall by Russell Borden Junior and Jocelyn Dorrington in Ward One. Elsewhere in New Glasgow, it’ll be Clyde Fraser and Dawn Peters in Ward 2, and Fred El Haddad and Joe MacDonald in Ward 3.
Danny MacGillivray has been re-elected in Stellarton. MacGillivray points out people in Stellarton have returned the exact same council as they had before the vote, so he’s taking that as a firm endorsement from voters. The newly-elected Stellarton Mayor says he and council will work their “very hardest and smartest to validate their trust. “
Jim Ryan has been acclaimed as Mayor of Pictou. Pictou’s Councillors at large are: Dan Currie, Nadine LeBlanc, Melinda MacKenzie and Shawn McNamara.
In Westville Lennie White was also acclaimed.
Councillors elected at large in Westville are: Meghan Bragg, Mitchell MacGregor, Clarrie MacKinnon and Betty Jean Sutherland.
In the Municipality of Pictou County, Warden Robert Parker has been re-elected in District 6. Winners in the other County districts that were contested are Darla MacKeil, Larry Turner, Andy Thompson, Randy Palmer and Chester Dewar.
For our neighbours in Colchester County, Christine Blair has almost doubled the votes of her nearest competitor, former Mayor Bob Taylor, so Blair is back in control of Colchester County. Several Colchester Council districts have new faces to represent them, including Tim Johnson, who defeated incumbent Lloyd Gibbs in District 5, Lisa Patton, who took Colchester’s District 8, and another woman, Community Volunteer Marie Benoit, who soundly defeated Bob Pash in the Debert area’s District 9. In Truro, Mayor Bill Mills is also in for yet another term as Mayor.
In Halifax, Mayor Mike Savage pulled off a big win for his 3rd term as mayor, and in CBRM, Mayor Cecil Clarke has been defeated by Amanda MacDougall. She defeated Clarke, a former provincial cabinet minister, by almost 4,000 votes.
NEW GLASGOW REGIONAL POLICE LOOKING FOR DRIVER WHO HIT GARAGE AND GREEN BIN
New Glasgow Regional Police are looking for an unknown vehicle that apparently backed into a garage and green bin at a home on the corner of Granville Street and Frederick Street over the weekend. The crash caused extensive damage to both pieces of property. The suspect vehicle immediately took off on Saturday afternoon, sometime between 2:00 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. Investigators figure it was caused by a large truck or cube van, and if you know anything,, they’d like to hear from you at New Glasgow Regional Police at 902-752-1941.
A 34-year-old Pictou County man accused of taking off from a traffic stop in Westville over the weekend, wasn’t on the loose for very long. Westville and Stellarton Police tracked him to a home, where he was taken into custody without issue. The charges against him are flight from police, driving without insurance or a valid inspection sticker and driving while his license was revoked. He’s slated to face a judge at Pictou Provincial Court on December 14th.
A former St. F-X University student is starting his first full week in almost 3 years without a veil of suspicion, after being acquitted on a sexual assault charge by a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge. Luke Letourneau had pleaded not guilty to the charge in connection with an incident at a residence on the Antigonish Campus in the fall of 2017. Madame Justice Denise Boudreau has ruled that with no direct evidence regarding consent by the complainant, she was left with reasonable doubt that a sexual assault had occurred. Boudreau says the complainant’s unexplained memory gap during the short sexual encounter was a key point in her decision, because the woman was not intoxicated and did not have a medical condition causing memory loss. Her ruling says she found Letourneau’s recollection of the events consistent and credible, and she noted that he ultimately stopped and apologized when the complainant made it clear that she was uncomfortable with what was happening.
PICTOU HOSPITAL GOING TO ONLINE BOOKING SYSTEM
The Sutherland Harris Hospital in Pictou is among five Nova Scotia Health sites added to the provincial online appointment booking service. Patients can now make an appointment for blood collection at the site online, as well as at several other hospitals across Cape Breton and in the Valley. Public Health says patients without internet access will continue to be able to make blood collection or X-ray appointments by phone.
When U.S. election results tick in, Americans living in the Atlantic Bubble could have an impact. Both Democrats and Republicans are pushing Americans and dual U.S. citizens living abroad to cast ballots for the presidential contest on Nov. 3. Organizers in Nova Scotia expect a high concentration of residents with citizenship to vote by mail and online for the first time, which they say could make a difference in highly contested battleground states.
The actor who played Tim Allen’s oldest son on the sit-com “Home Improvement,” was arrested over the weekend on domestic assault and strangulation charges in Eugene, Oregon. The Eugene Police Department says 39-year-old Ty Bryan is accused of assaulting his 27-year-old girlfriend by obstructing her breathing and grabbing her phone to keep her from calling 911. The actor was sitting outside his apartment when police arrived; his girlfriend was at a neighboring apartment and declined an offer of medical help.
