A constitutional challenge has been filed in BC Supreme Court challenging the province’s COVID-19 vaccine passport system by two women claiming they cannot receive any vaccines.

The vaccine card orders “ require the petitioners to choose between their own physical health and well being and their civil liberties,” the suit said. “Either choice has negative consequences on their families as well as themselves. The vaccine card orders actively deprive the petitioners of their Charter protected rights and freedoms.”

The suit names B.C.’s attorney general and minister of health as respondents.

Sarah Webb, of both Calgary and Victoria, and Maple Ridge’s Leigh Anne Eliason filed the challenge, saying they have have physical disabilities which require a medical exemption from receiving further vaccines.

Webb, 39, works in hotel management, dividing her time between Victoria and Calgary.

The suit said she received the Moderna vaccine May 2. Six days later, the suit said, she experienced fatigue, cramping, heart arrhythmias, swollen lymphs, severe pain, and a rash which engulfed her arm…read more.

Fully vaccinated Canadian vacationers and day-trippers will be allowed to drive into the United States beginning in early November, the Biden administration said Tuesday, the first glimmer of hope in nearly 20 months for the families and businesses that depend on two-way traffic across the Canada-U.S. border.

Senior government officials delivered the news in a conference call with reporters on condition they hold their reports until early Wednesday – a plan that quickly went out the window when New York congressman Brian Higgins all but shouted the news from the rooftops.

“At long last, there is action by the United States to open the doors and welcome back our Canadian neighbours,” Higgins said in a statement.

“Border communities await further details from the administration with great expectation, and I will continue to advocate for a more fully and freely open border to both governments, sooner rather than later.”

Those details remained few and far between Tuesday, but the plan is designed to dovetail with the administration’s existing plan to allow international travellers from further afield to resume travelling to the U.S. on the same timeline, provided they’ve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19…read more.

A former nuclear engineer officer in the U.S. Navy and his wife have been arrested on espionage charges, after allegedly attempting to sell secrets about submarines to a foreign entity, according to court records unsealed Sunday.

The Department of Justice says Jonathan Toebbe and his wife, Diana Toebbe, were arrested Saturday and charged with violating the Atomic Energy Act. The department says Toebbe unwittingly communicated with FBI agents and passed along sensitive military secrets, in a scheme that stretched more than a year.

Toebbe held an active national security clearance through the Department of Defense, giving him access to restricted data, authorities said.

The 42-year-old former lieutenant in the Navy and his wife, 45, sold restricted information “concerning the design of nuclear powered warships” to someone they believed was a representative of an unnamed foreign power, according to federal law enforcement officials…read more.