A woman was unlawfully arrested and suffered an "indignity" when she was forcibly strip-searched while in Ottawa police custody, an Ontario judge has ruled.
Stacy Bonds, 27, was arrested on Rideau Street in September 2008 and charged with public intoxication.
Justice Richard Lajoie of the Ontario court of justice stayed the charge against Bonds, ruling it would be a "travesty to permit these proceedings to go on" because of the "appalling behaviours" of police officers seen in a videotape presented in court.
In a transcript of his Oct. 27 oral decision released Wednesday, Lajoie ruled that while the accused had been drinking when she was arrested, there was "no evidence that Ms Bonds was a threat to herself or anyone else" and so there was no grounds to detain her.
Bonds's detention and subsequent strip-search was a "clear violation" of her rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Lajoie ruled.
Lajoie said the video shows Bonds — who is "not being one hundred per cent compliant" — receive "two extremely violent knee hits in the back."
Bonds is then forced to the ground, where a police officer cuts off her shirt and bra with scissors "with the assistance of at least three male officers," Lajoie said.
There was "no reasonable explanation" for the strip-search, Lajoie said. "It is more than evident that the search at 474 Elgin [Street] was an extremely serious breach of Ms. Bonds' rights."
Matthew Webber, Bonds's lawyer, thanked Lajoie.
"At the station we have the police officers not only assaulting my client, but we have the police engaging in a strip search which is in clear contravention of the Supreme Court of Canada's directions as to when you can engage in a strip search," Webber told CBC News.
"It's a lack of knowledge. It's a lack of training."
Police launch internal investigation
Ottawa police Chief Vern White, reached in Kingston, Ont. by telephone, promised a swift internal investigation into the treatment Bonds received. Like other Ontario police chiefs, White said, he would like more power to discipline officers.
"I do not feel our discipline process today carries the full weight of accountability the public expects," White said. "Most of the chiefs have identified to the province that we need to have some changes in the Police Services Act."
White said the current act makes it difficult to suspend or dismiss police officers, and even those dismissed may remain on the payroll if they choose to appeal.
Webber suggested the officers involved should be fired.
"Perhaps they should not have those jobs; perhaps they cannot be trusted to have those jobs," he said.
Webber said the incident has shaken Bonds's confidence in the police and she is considering launching a lawsuit against the Ottawa Police Service
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/11/17/ottawa-strip-search-117.html#ixzz15bsNYYmH
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews defended federal legislation Tuesday that would pave the way to providing the U.S. with personal information about Canadians flying over that country : The U.S. has a legal right to request that information, Toews told a Commons committee.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews defended federal legislation Tuesday that would pave the way to providing the U.S. with personal information about Canadians flying over that country.
The U.S. has a legal right to request that information, Toews told a Commons committee.
Earlier this year, Canada's major airlines said they would be forced either to break privacy laws or to ignore new American air security rules unless the federal government comes up with a response to U.S. demands for passenger information.
The National Airlines Council of Canada, which represents the four largest Canadian carriers, pleaded with the government to find "a permanent solution" to issues raised by the U.S. Secure Flight program.
The program involves collection of the name, gender and birth date of the approximately five million Canadians who fly through American airspace each year en route to destinations such as the Caribbean, Mexico and South America — even if their planes don't touch the ground in the States.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration would vet the names against security watch lists.
Passengers whose names appear on the list could face anything from extra security screening to being barred from a flight.
Opposition MPs on the Commons transport committee expressed concerns about how Washington might use the information.
Toews assured them the data would be used only for airline security purposes.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/11/16/toews-passenger-information.html#socialcomments#ixzz15VpeuI2M
The U.S. has a legal right to request that information, Toews told a Commons committee.
Earlier this year, Canada's major airlines said they would be forced either to break privacy laws or to ignore new American air security rules unless the federal government comes up with a response to U.S. demands for passenger information.
The National Airlines Council of Canada, which represents the four largest Canadian carriers, pleaded with the government to find "a permanent solution" to issues raised by the U.S. Secure Flight program.
The program involves collection of the name, gender and birth date of the approximately five million Canadians who fly through American airspace each year en route to destinations such as the Caribbean, Mexico and South America — even if their planes don't touch the ground in the States.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration would vet the names against security watch lists.
Passengers whose names appear on the list could face anything from extra security screening to being barred from a flight.
Opposition MPs on the Commons transport committee expressed concerns about how Washington might use the information.
Toews assured them the data would be used only for airline security purposes.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/11/16/toews-passenger-information.html#socialcomments#ixzz15VpeuI2M
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Toronto's Police Chief Bill Blair wants to keep some of the equipment bought expressly for the G20 Summit, particularly security cameras and so-called long range acoustic devices.
Toronto's Police Chief Bill Blair wants to keep some of the equipment bought expressly for the G20 Summit, particularly security cameras and so-called long range acoustic devices.
"We have some requirement for CCTV cameras in certain neighbourhoods that are experiencing some violence and difficulty," Blair said Monday outside a Toronto Police Services Board meeting.
The police acquired 77 new cameras for use downtown for the June 26-27 G20 Summit in the downtown core. The cameras had to come down after the summit.
The cameras had to come down after the summit.
At the January Police Services Board meeting, Blair will formally ask to keep the cameras. Because they were purchased for the G20, they will only cost half the usual price. The federal government will pay the rest, CTV Toronto reported.
The cost to the service would be $90,000.
If the police do get to acquire the 52 new cameras, it would bring the total number to 76. Police would not be able to deploy the cameras immediately.
The police also acquired four Long Range Acoustic Devices for the summit. The LRADs, as they are also known, are used for crowd control.
Blair would like to keep three for the police (one for the marine unit), with the fourth possibly going to Toronto Fire.
G20 expenses
The total bill for the summit isn't yet known. A second summit, the G8, also occurred in the cottage country city of Huntsville on June 25-26.
The preliminary bill, as of early November, is at least $860 million. Of that, total security costs are $676 million.
According to Blair, the federal government's late decision to move the G20 summit to downtown Toronto's Metro Convention Centre meant there was no time to seek competitive bids for items such as hotel rooms, meals and riot equipment.
The city and the police board approved the service's skirting of normal procurement procedures.
The costs include:
radio rentals - $4.6 million
cameras and fibre optics - $1.1 million
detention centre lease - $1.7 million
Hotel rooms for police are expected to cost more than $5 million.
Blair said the expenditures will still come in under the budgeted figure of $124.8 million, saying it will come in around $76 million.
To put that number in context, the city budgeted $888 million to provide policing services this year, the largest single item in Toronto's operating budget.
A full accounting of G20 policing costs for Toronto will be presented at the January police services board meeting.
It is anticipated the federal government will cover the costs incurred by Toronto police.
"We have some requirement for CCTV cameras in certain neighbourhoods that are experiencing some violence and difficulty," Blair said Monday outside a Toronto Police Services Board meeting.
The police acquired 77 new cameras for use downtown for the June 26-27 G20 Summit in the downtown core. The cameras had to come down after the summit.
The cameras had to come down after the summit.
At the January Police Services Board meeting, Blair will formally ask to keep the cameras. Because they were purchased for the G20, they will only cost half the usual price. The federal government will pay the rest, CTV Toronto reported.
The cost to the service would be $90,000.
If the police do get to acquire the 52 new cameras, it would bring the total number to 76. Police would not be able to deploy the cameras immediately.
The police also acquired four Long Range Acoustic Devices for the summit. The LRADs, as they are also known, are used for crowd control.
Blair would like to keep three for the police (one for the marine unit), with the fourth possibly going to Toronto Fire.
G20 expenses
The total bill for the summit isn't yet known. A second summit, the G8, also occurred in the cottage country city of Huntsville on June 25-26.
The preliminary bill, as of early November, is at least $860 million. Of that, total security costs are $676 million.
According to Blair, the federal government's late decision to move the G20 summit to downtown Toronto's Metro Convention Centre meant there was no time to seek competitive bids for items such as hotel rooms, meals and riot equipment.
The city and the police board approved the service's skirting of normal procurement procedures.
The costs include:
radio rentals - $4.6 million
cameras and fibre optics - $1.1 million
detention centre lease - $1.7 million
Hotel rooms for police are expected to cost more than $5 million.
Blair said the expenditures will still come in under the budgeted figure of $124.8 million, saying it will come in around $76 million.
To put that number in context, the city budgeted $888 million to provide policing services this year, the largest single item in Toronto's operating budget.
A full accounting of G20 policing costs for Toronto will be presented at the January police services board meeting.
It is anticipated the federal government will cover the costs incurred by Toronto police.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Iceland Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland launch spy inquiry in to US counter-surveillance programme.
Iceland launches US spy inquiry
The Icelandic government has become the latest Nordic country to open an inquiry into whether its citizens are being spied on by the US embassy.
Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland are already investigating whether US embassies are acting illegally.
The allegations began when Norwegian TV claimed protesters were photographed and their names added to a database.
The US says it runs a legal counter-surveillance programme in response to security threats to its embassies.
Although US embassy officials in Reykjavik have denied any espionage is taking place, Iceland's ministry of justice says it has asked the national police commissioner to carry out a fact-finding inquiry.
The ministry said it was responding to revelations in Scandinavia "that US embassies conducted surveillance inside the countries without permission from state authorities".
US officials say they stand ready to discuss the matter "in government to government channels".
East African attacks
US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley explained in Washington earlier this week that counter-terrorism measures related to attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania 12 years ago in which 250 people died.
"We have acknowledged that we have a programme around the world where we are alert for people who may be surveilling our embassies because we recognise that they are potential targets of terrorism," he said.
But the report on Norway's TV2 channel claiming that hundreds of Norwegians had been monitored by former police and armed forces personnel alarmed neighbouring countries.
Sweden's Justice Minister Beatrice Ask has claimed that people linked to the US embassy in Stockholm have performed surveillance since 2000 without fully informing Swedish authorities.
She has described the revelations as "very serious".
Her Danish counterpart Lars Barfoed said that security police would meet US embassy officials in Copenhagen to ensure no laws were being
The Icelandic government has become the latest Nordic country to open an inquiry into whether its citizens are being spied on by the US embassy.
Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland are already investigating whether US embassies are acting illegally.
The allegations began when Norwegian TV claimed protesters were photographed and their names added to a database.
The US says it runs a legal counter-surveillance programme in response to security threats to its embassies.
Although US embassy officials in Reykjavik have denied any espionage is taking place, Iceland's ministry of justice says it has asked the national police commissioner to carry out a fact-finding inquiry.
The ministry said it was responding to revelations in Scandinavia "that US embassies conducted surveillance inside the countries without permission from state authorities".
US officials say they stand ready to discuss the matter "in government to government channels".
East African attacks
US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley explained in Washington earlier this week that counter-terrorism measures related to attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania 12 years ago in which 250 people died.
"We have acknowledged that we have a programme around the world where we are alert for people who may be surveilling our embassies because we recognise that they are potential targets of terrorism," he said.
But the report on Norway's TV2 channel claiming that hundreds of Norwegians had been monitored by former police and armed forces personnel alarmed neighbouring countries.
Sweden's Justice Minister Beatrice Ask has claimed that people linked to the US embassy in Stockholm have performed surveillance since 2000 without fully informing Swedish authorities.
She has described the revelations as "very serious".
Her Danish counterpart Lars Barfoed said that security police would meet US embassy officials in Copenhagen to ensure no laws were being
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Conservative Senators are quietly using taxpayer-funded literature to target opposition ridings with a partisan crime message.
OTTAWA—Conservative Senators are quietly using taxpayer-funded literature to target opposition ridings with a partisan crime message as the party gears up for the next election, the Toronto Star has learned.
And at least one of the Senators sent the mailers out at the direction of the Conservative Party of Canada’s national campaign office.
That Senator was Bob Runciman (Ontario). It is not clear whether Senator Don Plett (Manitoba), who distributed almost identical material, did so at the behest of the party.
The tactic of Senators using their office budgets to demonize Liberal MPs in their own ridings is unheard of and an affront to the Senate’s role as a chamber of sober second thought, Liberal Senator Jim Munson, said in an interview.
The two Senators sent out some 6,000 brochures in total to the ridings of Liberal MPs Anita Neville (Winnipeg South Centre) and David McGuinty (Ottawa South) in September urging constituents to join them in demanding stiffer sentences for young offenders while suggesting Liberals were soft on crime.
“It’s the politics of fear paid for by taxpayers’ money and I find it disgusting,” Munson said, adding that he will be raising the controversial practice in the Red Chamber on Tuesday.
“It’s unethical and they should be ashamed of themselves,” Munson said Thursday.
But the Senators were unapologetic about spending thousands of taxpayers’ dollars, saying Canadians deserve to know what the Harper government would to do to crack down on young offenders.
“Anita Neville has shown over and over again that she simply doesn’t want to properly punish crime in my humble opinion,” said Plett, former Conservative Party president, who is among the 35 senators appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the 105-seat upper Chamber.
By using the Senators to send out this kind of literature, the Conservative Party gets around the prohibition on MPs using tax dollars to send partisan messages to other ridings, which the House of Commons agreed must stop.
The material, sent to 3,000 homes in each of the two ridings, includes an “official petition to the Senate” that calls for revealing the names of dangerous or violent young offenders and adult-length sentences when warranted, among other things.
“Unlike the Liberals, we also believe that the whole point of a criminal justice system isn’t the welfare of the criminal, it’s the safety of you, your family and your home and possessions,” said the identical message in the two mail-outs.
“I take crime seriously, as I’m sure you do. It’s time we told the opposition parties in Ottawa that we want them to take it seriously too.”
McGuinty and Neville say the literature is just further proof the Conservatives don’t hesitate to use taxpayers’ dollars to further their political agenda.
“They are targeting those polls (voter areas) in the ridings that they are quite deliberately making an effort to make inroads into,” Neville said.
“I think it is certainly duplicitous. They’ve used everything they could in the House of Commons until the outcry became too loud and now they have moved to the Senate to do their dirty work. If they want to do their dirty work then pay for it. Don’t do it on the taxpayers’ bill,” she said.
Plett said the fact remains that “we have some serious issues with some crime, especially in the youth crime” and that many people who responded agreed.
Neville noted the petition also provides the Conservatives an opportunity to build the party’s database of potential members and donors, all of it done on the public’s dime.
Runciman, a former Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP and cabinet minister who has a long history of calling for tougher youth sentences, was frank about his decision to target McGuinty’s riding.
“I campaigned there in the last federal election for the Conservative candidate and he did fairly well actually, given the historical nature of the riding,” said Runciman, referring to runner-up Elie Salibi.
Runciman received only about 200 names on the petitions and some “blistering negative emails” criticizing him for sending the literature out.
“There was not really much of a reaction,” said Runciman, who told the Star it was the “Conservative campaign folks” that put him up to it.
McGuinty said the Conservatives have a history since forming a minority government in 2006 of “taking tax dollars and justify spending them in any way in order to achieve their neo-Conservative agenda. It’s that simple.”
“That’s what’s going on right now in Ottawa. That’s what your readers have to know. It is out of control and it’s all because Harper wants his majority,” he said.
And at least one of the Senators sent the mailers out at the direction of the Conservative Party of Canada’s national campaign office.
That Senator was Bob Runciman (Ontario). It is not clear whether Senator Don Plett (Manitoba), who distributed almost identical material, did so at the behest of the party.
The tactic of Senators using their office budgets to demonize Liberal MPs in their own ridings is unheard of and an affront to the Senate’s role as a chamber of sober second thought, Liberal Senator Jim Munson, said in an interview.
The two Senators sent out some 6,000 brochures in total to the ridings of Liberal MPs Anita Neville (Winnipeg South Centre) and David McGuinty (Ottawa South) in September urging constituents to join them in demanding stiffer sentences for young offenders while suggesting Liberals were soft on crime.
“It’s the politics of fear paid for by taxpayers’ money and I find it disgusting,” Munson said, adding that he will be raising the controversial practice in the Red Chamber on Tuesday.
“It’s unethical and they should be ashamed of themselves,” Munson said Thursday.
But the Senators were unapologetic about spending thousands of taxpayers’ dollars, saying Canadians deserve to know what the Harper government would to do to crack down on young offenders.
“Anita Neville has shown over and over again that she simply doesn’t want to properly punish crime in my humble opinion,” said Plett, former Conservative Party president, who is among the 35 senators appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the 105-seat upper Chamber.
By using the Senators to send out this kind of literature, the Conservative Party gets around the prohibition on MPs using tax dollars to send partisan messages to other ridings, which the House of Commons agreed must stop.
The material, sent to 3,000 homes in each of the two ridings, includes an “official petition to the Senate” that calls for revealing the names of dangerous or violent young offenders and adult-length sentences when warranted, among other things.
“Unlike the Liberals, we also believe that the whole point of a criminal justice system isn’t the welfare of the criminal, it’s the safety of you, your family and your home and possessions,” said the identical message in the two mail-outs.
“I take crime seriously, as I’m sure you do. It’s time we told the opposition parties in Ottawa that we want them to take it seriously too.”
McGuinty and Neville say the literature is just further proof the Conservatives don’t hesitate to use taxpayers’ dollars to further their political agenda.
“They are targeting those polls (voter areas) in the ridings that they are quite deliberately making an effort to make inroads into,” Neville said.
“I think it is certainly duplicitous. They’ve used everything they could in the House of Commons until the outcry became too loud and now they have moved to the Senate to do their dirty work. If they want to do their dirty work then pay for it. Don’t do it on the taxpayers’ bill,” she said.
Plett said the fact remains that “we have some serious issues with some crime, especially in the youth crime” and that many people who responded agreed.
Neville noted the petition also provides the Conservatives an opportunity to build the party’s database of potential members and donors, all of it done on the public’s dime.
Runciman, a former Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP and cabinet minister who has a long history of calling for tougher youth sentences, was frank about his decision to target McGuinty’s riding.
“I campaigned there in the last federal election for the Conservative candidate and he did fairly well actually, given the historical nature of the riding,” said Runciman, referring to runner-up Elie Salibi.
Runciman received only about 200 names on the petitions and some “blistering negative emails” criticizing him for sending the literature out.
“There was not really much of a reaction,” said Runciman, who told the Star it was the “Conservative campaign folks” that put him up to it.
McGuinty said the Conservatives have a history since forming a minority government in 2006 of “taking tax dollars and justify spending them in any way in order to achieve their neo-Conservative agenda. It’s that simple.”
“That’s what’s going on right now in Ottawa. That’s what your readers have to know. It is out of control and it’s all because Harper wants his majority,” he said.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
An Ontario coroner has decided to expand the inquest into the final months of Ashley Smith's life
An Ontario coroner has decided to expand the inquest into the final months of Ashley Smith's life and look into how her state of mind may have contributed to the New Brunswick teen's death at a federal prison for women.
"The expanded scope may assist the jury in making a determination about the manner of Ms. Smith's death," coroner Bonita Porter wrote in her decision released on Friday. "Her state of mind is part of the circumstances of the death and will be relevant to the issue of 'by what means' the death occurred."
Porter said the expanded inquest will include "an examination of factors that may have impacted Ms. Smith's state of mind on Oct. 19, 2007."
She said information presented to the jury "will not necessarily be restricted by her age, geography, date or nature of the institution that was tasked with her care."
Exclusive footage
The Fifth Estate has obtained exclusive prison footage of Ashley Smith's final months in a federal prison in Kitchener, Ont. The footage is part of a documentary called Behind the Wall, which can be watched online on The Fifth Estate website.
The inquest was initially going to be restricted to Smith's experience in Ontario from May 12, 2007 up to her death on Oct. 19, 2007, and not her entire 11½ months and 17 transfers within federal correctional facilities.
Smith, while in isolation, choked herself to death with a piece of cloth while guards at the Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, Ont., looked on. They had been ordered not to intervene.
Earlier this month, Julian Falconer, a lawyer for Smith's family, argued before Porter that the inquest should be broadened to understand the 19-year-old's "barbaric" living conditions and learn fully what led to her death.
A report to the Correctional Service of Canada by independent psychologist Margo Rivera concluded that prison officials’ repeated transfers of Smith, against doctor’s orders, interfered with her mental health therapy and escalated her spiral toward her death.
Rivera also concluded that Smith believed guards would intervene and that her self-choking behaviour was not an attempt to kill herself, but rather "met her need for increasing the level of stimulation" by provoking guards, forcing them to enter her isolation cell to save her
"The expanded scope may assist the jury in making a determination about the manner of Ms. Smith's death," coroner Bonita Porter wrote in her decision released on Friday. "Her state of mind is part of the circumstances of the death and will be relevant to the issue of 'by what means' the death occurred."
Porter said the expanded inquest will include "an examination of factors that may have impacted Ms. Smith's state of mind on Oct. 19, 2007."
She said information presented to the jury "will not necessarily be restricted by her age, geography, date or nature of the institution that was tasked with her care."
Exclusive footage
The Fifth Estate has obtained exclusive prison footage of Ashley Smith's final months in a federal prison in Kitchener, Ont. The footage is part of a documentary called Behind the Wall, which can be watched online on The Fifth Estate website.
The inquest was initially going to be restricted to Smith's experience in Ontario from May 12, 2007 up to her death on Oct. 19, 2007, and not her entire 11½ months and 17 transfers within federal correctional facilities.
Smith, while in isolation, choked herself to death with a piece of cloth while guards at the Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, Ont., looked on. They had been ordered not to intervene.
Earlier this month, Julian Falconer, a lawyer for Smith's family, argued before Porter that the inquest should be broadened to understand the 19-year-old's "barbaric" living conditions and learn fully what led to her death.
A report to the Correctional Service of Canada by independent psychologist Margo Rivera concluded that prison officials’ repeated transfers of Smith, against doctor’s orders, interfered with her mental health therapy and escalated her spiral toward her death.
Rivera also concluded that Smith believed guards would intervene and that her self-choking behaviour was not an attempt to kill herself, but rather "met her need for increasing the level of stimulation" by provoking guards, forcing them to enter her isolation cell to save her
Friday, November 12, 2010
Forget about a majority government. So underwhelmed are Canadian voters with the current state of politics that securing even a minority government for any of the parties is now proving elusive, according to a new EKOS Research poll.
Forget about a majority government. So underwhelmed are Canadian voters with the current state of politics that securing even a minority government for any of the parties is now proving elusive, according to a new EKOS Research poll.
“The new normal is near parity with no single party having enough support for even a stable minority government,” pollster Frank Graves told The Globe in an email. “Welcome to the new normal. Can you say, repeat after me ... C-O-A-L-I-T-I-O-N?”
More related to this story
•The underlying bones don’t favour Michael Ignatieff
•Harper clings to five-point lead as poll exposes ‘political rut’
•What Parliament would look like if only women voted
Media
Read the Nov. 11, 2010 EKOS poll Released Thursday morning, the survey shows Stephen Harper’s team and Michael Ignatieff’s statistically tied. The Conservatives have the support of 29.4 per cent of Canadians compared to 28.6 per cent for the Liberals. Jack Layton’s NDP, however, is at 19.3 per cent – the highest level the party has been at in two years.
Notably, New Democrats are leading among youth and Atlantic Canadians – usually the bastion of the Liberals. And Mr. Graves found that if the vote was restricted to women, the NDP would be tied with the Conservatives, who have tremendous support from older men in Alberta.
The Greens and Bloc, meanwhile, are at 10.7 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively.
It is significant, Mr. Graves said, that no single party can reach the threshold of 30 per cent support. “In a country which historically would have seen at least one choice running in the 40 per cent region and sometime 50 per cent a decade or so ago, it’s really startling to see just how much things have changed.”
The slight lead the Conservatives had in the EKOS poll two weeks ago has all but vanished – as has the 10-point lead the Tories had over the Liberals last year at this time.
This is no fluke, Mr. Graves said. Over the past month his polling has shown one week in which the Conservatives had an edge over the Liberals. It was the result of Tory gains in Ontario, which Mr. Graves attributed to the “Ford bounce” after conservative-leaning Rob Ford was elected mayor of Toronto.
“The other three weeks it was a statistical tie,” Mr. Graves said. Looking at calculations going back to January, however, EKOS polling shows the Conservatives with an average 32 per cent support compared to 28 per cent for the Liberals.
This begs the question: “Can any single party eke out the more humble goal of even a secure minority? Increasingly, the answer appears to be that even that more modest goal may be elusive.”
The poll of 1,815 Canadians was conducted between Nov. 3 and Nov. 9; it has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Fighter jets
Canadians are split over the controversial $16-billion purchase of 65 new stealth fighter jets: 54 per cent of EKOS respondents are strongly or somewhat opposed to the purchase compared to 46 per cent who strongly or somewhat support the deal.
Mr. Graves found that the strongest opposition is in Quebec and among university graduates while those who support the purchase are mostly from Alberta, seniors and male.
The Liberals have been hammering away at this proposed sole-source contract, vowing that if they form government they would scrap the purchase and put the deal out to competition.
More related to this story
•Stephen Harper again enters ‘uncertain world of coalitions’
•Mild Tory pain means slight Liberal gain from stagnant electorate
“The new normal is near parity with no single party having enough support for even a stable minority government,” pollster Frank Graves told The Globe in an email. “Welcome to the new normal. Can you say, repeat after me ... C-O-A-L-I-T-I-O-N?”
More related to this story
•The underlying bones don’t favour Michael Ignatieff
•Harper clings to five-point lead as poll exposes ‘political rut’
•What Parliament would look like if only women voted
Media
Read the Nov. 11, 2010 EKOS poll Released Thursday morning, the survey shows Stephen Harper’s team and Michael Ignatieff’s statistically tied. The Conservatives have the support of 29.4 per cent of Canadians compared to 28.6 per cent for the Liberals. Jack Layton’s NDP, however, is at 19.3 per cent – the highest level the party has been at in two years.
Notably, New Democrats are leading among youth and Atlantic Canadians – usually the bastion of the Liberals. And Mr. Graves found that if the vote was restricted to women, the NDP would be tied with the Conservatives, who have tremendous support from older men in Alberta.
The Greens and Bloc, meanwhile, are at 10.7 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively.
It is significant, Mr. Graves said, that no single party can reach the threshold of 30 per cent support. “In a country which historically would have seen at least one choice running in the 40 per cent region and sometime 50 per cent a decade or so ago, it’s really startling to see just how much things have changed.”
The slight lead the Conservatives had in the EKOS poll two weeks ago has all but vanished – as has the 10-point lead the Tories had over the Liberals last year at this time.
This is no fluke, Mr. Graves said. Over the past month his polling has shown one week in which the Conservatives had an edge over the Liberals. It was the result of Tory gains in Ontario, which Mr. Graves attributed to the “Ford bounce” after conservative-leaning Rob Ford was elected mayor of Toronto.
“The other three weeks it was a statistical tie,” Mr. Graves said. Looking at calculations going back to January, however, EKOS polling shows the Conservatives with an average 32 per cent support compared to 28 per cent for the Liberals.
This begs the question: “Can any single party eke out the more humble goal of even a secure minority? Increasingly, the answer appears to be that even that more modest goal may be elusive.”
The poll of 1,815 Canadians was conducted between Nov. 3 and Nov. 9; it has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Fighter jets
Canadians are split over the controversial $16-billion purchase of 65 new stealth fighter jets: 54 per cent of EKOS respondents are strongly or somewhat opposed to the purchase compared to 46 per cent who strongly or somewhat support the deal.
Mr. Graves found that the strongest opposition is in Quebec and among university graduates while those who support the purchase are mostly from Alberta, seniors and male.
The Liberals have been hammering away at this proposed sole-source contract, vowing that if they form government they would scrap the purchase and put the deal out to competition.
More related to this story
•Stephen Harper again enters ‘uncertain world of coalitions’
•Mild Tory pain means slight Liberal gain from stagnant electorate
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