35,000 hydro clients in Quebec, Ontario without power after severe storms

QDoc patients in tight spot over billing dispute

Manitobans have been pulled into a dispute between QDoc — a Winnipeg-based virtual health-care platform — and the NDP government over fees billed to the province for patient care.

An Aug. 24 email from QDoc to its users prompted concern or calls for clarity from Manitobans who use the 24-7 platform to see a physician or nurse practitioner through encrypted video calls.

“When I first read it, like many others, I assumed they were going to be nixing the service altogether because that’s the way it was presented,” Tyndall resident Stephanie Pituley said.

“Upon further research, obviously that’s not the case, but I am still concerned to be honest. How many people did that research, I don’t know.”

Comic creator unleashes talent with book bound for festival

For Glenn Hares, comic books — specifically, superhero comics — have always been a refuge, a way to both understand and escape the world.

Now, he’s prepared to release his own into the world.

“When I was in high school, I started creating characters, like this guy here,” says Hares, 40, showing a reporter a copy of the self-published Tytanium No. 0.

“Originally, he was just named Jerry Wolfe. Recently, my aunt suggested I make him neurodivergent because I based him on myself. A lot of superheroes have extraordinary, fantastic, out-of-the-ordinary powers, but they’re also just people. They live imperfect lives.”

Twenty-six people detained at detox centre since March

The new facility designed to detain people in a drug psychosis for up to 72 hours “is doing what it’s meant to do” — even though just 26 people were held for that purpose since it opened.

“The PCC (protective care centre) is doing what it’s meant to do — support people, meet them where they’re at, provide a caring environment,” Housing Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith told reporters Friday after updated data were posted online.

The vast majority of those detained at the 20-room facility at 190 Disraeli Fwy. were recovering from alcohol intoxication, the update shows.

There were 4,425 detained from the time the site opened Dec. 2 until June 30, for an average of less than five hours.

Dynacare strike set to begin before hearing into essential services agreement

Hundreds of Dynacare lab employees are expected to hit the picket line Tuesday, hours before a labour board hearing to determine whether they are essential workers.

35,000 hydro clients in Quebec, Ontario without power after severe storms

MONTREAL - Roughly 35,000 clients were without power in Ontario and Quebec on Friday afternoon after severe thunderstorms swept across Central Canada, which was already dealing with sweltering temperatures. 

At the peak of the outages more than 214,000 customers were knocked off the grid in Ontario and nearly 140,000 customers were without power in Quebec, Environment Canada said.

Hydro One, Ontario's power utility, said crews were working "as safely and quickly as possible" to fix service to over 17,000 customers after several rounds of thunderstorms since Canada Day.

While in Quebec, Audrey St-Pierre, spokesperson for Quebec's hydro utility, said about 200 teams of workers had been dispatched to restore service to more than 18,000 clients. 

Steinem’s life a lesson in audacity, generosity, courage

I wish I could tell you the first time I heard the word “feminist,” it was from Gloria Steinem, but it was definitely from a Spice Girl.

Props, though, to the Spice Girls for actually using the F word. So many people these days are afraid of it — afraid of using it, afraid of identifying with it, afraid of claiming it for themselves.

Gloria Steinem wasn’t, and she made it so we wouldn’t be either.

The trailblazing American journalist and feminist activist died this week. She was 92. She was a lion, a woman who fought for rights and freedoms that many subsequent generations take for granted — and which, in the last decade especially, have been increasingly threatened.