CFB Kingston failed environmental compliance inspection on refrigerants: memo
Environment Canada sent National Defence a warning letter earlier this year alleging CFB Kingston broke federal environmental rules by failing to test rooftop air conditioners for refrigerant leaks in 2023.
National Defence documents, obtained through Access to Information law, say the base experienced three large halocarbon releases of over 100 kilograms in the past two years.
Halocarbons are greenhouse gases widely used as refrigerants and are associated with climate change.
The Defence Department blamed limited maintenance resources and poor record-keeping.
The documents also say the government’s recent hikes to the defence budget have led to more resources for maintenance and compliance, including at the Kingston base.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has booked tens of billions in added defence spending to meet Canada’s steep NATO spending commitments — although a previous operational spending clawback is reportedly still going ahead.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2026.
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Vancouver officer says Gray not lawfully entitled to repel police during fatal arrest
A Vancouver police officer involved in the deadly arrest of Myles Gray in 2015 says he doesn't believe Gray had any lawful right to repel officers' use of force against him.
Const. Eric Birzneck is testifying at a public hearing into Gray's death called by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner in Vancouver.
Hearing counsel Brock Martland asked Birzneck about scenarios where a member of the public may be legally allowed to resist police use of force if the "police contact is unlawful," but Birzneck says he believed Gray was "arrestable" at the time of the encounter.
Birzneck is one of seven officers involved in the fatal altercation with Gray who are named as respondents in the public hearing, called to determine whether the officers committed misconduct under the Police Act.
He is the first to testify, telling the hearing this week that Gray displayed incredible strength and appeared "impervious to pain" as officers tried to subdue him near the boundary between Burnaby and Vancouver on Aug. 13, 2015.
No charges have been laid over Gray's death, which a 2023 coroner's inquest ruled was a homicide, a term that does not assign legal blame.
The commissioner's notice of public hearing says an earlier disciplinary process had dismissed the misconduct allegations, but the discipline authority found the process "strangely lopsided" and had to decide the case despite "discrepancies and inconsistencies in statements made by VPD members."
The inquest heard that Gray was left with injuries that included a fractured eye socket, a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles, while a paramedic told the inquest that Gray's bruising was so severe, he initially thought he was not a white man.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2026.
By Darryl Greer | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Inquest into death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet hears and sees woman's final moments
A coroner's inquest into the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet has watched and listened to some of the 29-year-old woman's final moments before she fell to her death from a 24th-floor balcony.
A compilation video that overlaid the recordings of five 911 calls and police microphones with CCTV footage from the hallway outside her home on May 27, 2020, was played for jurors as the inquest began its third day.
Both Korchinski-Paquet's mother and brother called 911 to report that a fight broke out between the siblings after Korchinski-Paquet had seizures earlier in the day.
Korchinski-Paquet called three times, sounding out of breath and saying that she had difficulty breathing after her brother and mother attacked her.
In her second call, she told the operator she has epilepsy and just had a seizure. She said she broke two bottles by throwing them at her mother and brother in the hallway, adding she couldn't control herself.
An agreed narrative read earlier this week said Korchinski-Paquet had a history of seizures from epilepsy, and often experienced confusion, aggressive behaviour and temporary amnesia in their wake.
A neurologist who examined her records after her death testified that in the years before her death, she showed symptoms in keeping with postictal delirium or postictal psychosis on several occasions. Both are mental states that can follow seizures.
Inquest counsel Roger Shallow warned jurors Thursday that the recordings would be difficult to see and hear, as he offered sympathies to Korchinski-Paquet's grieving family.
"I take no shame in sharing with you that, in compiling this and watching it once it came together, I wept, and I'll probably weep again tonight," he said.
"To the family of Regis: This video is going to depict your daughter, your sister, your auntie, your loved one in the few final moments before this tragedy occurred, both in visual and in sound. My heart bleeds at the thought of the agony viewing this might cause you."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2026.
By Paola Loriggio | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.