Drama, defections, and drugs: B.C.'s spring legislative session wraps up
As the spring legislative wrapped up in Victoria, opposition MLAs got one last chance to take the premier to task, a former NDP cabinet minister joined BC United, and after weeks of debate, David Eby promised action around growing discontent due to open drug use.
Question period got so heated, Speaker Raj Chouhan stood in his seat (a rarity) to appeal for order.
"Members, members, members. Take a deep breath. It's not the end of the world," he said during one particularly heated exchange.
Opposition MLA Shirley Bond grilled the premier on open drug use in public places such as parks.
"He could do it today — not wait, not talk, not dodge, not weave," Bond said of the premier.
Left on their own to deal with the issue, many municipalities are implementing a ban. The opposition worries that could lead to a patchwork of rules and instead it wants the province to bring in B.C.-wide rules. The opposition claims things got worse after possession of hard drugs was decriminalized in January of this year.
Premier David Eby got up amidst heckling and said: "Nobody wants this activity affecting our kids, and we will do something."
Eby also promised co-operation with local governments.
While the opposition returned to a familiar theme of public safety, a familiar face also returned to the legislature.
Harry Lali – a former NDP cabinet minister – is joining BC United because he feels the current administration is ignoring rural issues like forestry.
"It's always good to be back at the legislature. This was home for 18 years," Lali told reporters.
Lali, who still lives in Merritt, says he doesn't plan to run again, but will advise Kevin Falcon's team.
A statement from BC NDP provincial director Heather Stoutenburg said, in part: "Harry Lali has not been a BC NDP member since 2020, when his membership was terminated after he actively undermined the Indigenous BC NDP candidate in his riding."
Lali, who is known for being outspoken, dismissed the suggestion his defection amounts to sour grapes.
"That's a stupid statement that they put out. What matters to me is rural British Columbia," Lali added.
The NDP is touting several successes from this session, but Falcon, who leads the opposition party, said he is seeing little progress.
"Who on Earth thinks that crime and our streets have gotten any safer after 100 days of action of David Eby? It's gotten worse," Falcon said.
The debate will resume this fall when politicians return to the capital.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
President Joe Biden calls Japan and India 'xenophobic' nations that do not welcome immigrants
President Joe Biden has called Japan and India “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, lumping the two with adversaries China and Russia as he tried to explain their economic circumstances and contrasted the four with the U.S. on immigration.
Universities grapple with the complicated politics of campus encampments
Montreal police are facing pressure to move in and dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University campus on Thursday, as a growing number of universities across this country grapple with the tough decision of how to handle the protests.