B.C.’s Eby asks Doerkson to remove campaign chief over online post slamming Islam

Separatist movements are an indication of dissatisfaction, not imminent collapse

For a country supposedly on the verge of breaking apart, Canada has remarkably few people who actually support it.

You’d never know that from the headlines, with Quebec’s separatist party back in power and Alberta preparing to vote on its future in Confederation. The political noise is loud, but the public appetite for separation is extremely weak.

Roughly 70 per cent of Quebecers have no interest in separating from Canada, and the numbers in Alberta are probably about the same. That will be evident after Albertans vote Monday on whether they want to stay in Canada.

So where’s the crisis? Well, the truth is, there isn’t one.

Gang member who shot rival, bystander back in prison after release revoked

A Winnipeg man who shot a rival teenage gangster and an innocent 11-year-old bystander at the crowded Red River Exhibition more than four years ago has been sent back to prison.

Mocree Chuck Scatch-Dubour, now in his early 20s, left prison in April on statutory release on his 5 1/2-year federal sentence for the 2022 shooting. Scatch-Dubour was sentenced to the prison term as an adult in the spring of 2023 after pleading guilty to discharge of a firearm with intent to wound, aggravated assault and possession of a restricted firearm.

By law, most federal inmates automatically receive statutory release after two-thirds of their sentence, if they have not already been paroled.

Parole Board of Canada officials formally revoked Scatch-Dubour’s release this month after he unlawfully left his halfway house in June.

Hydro’s unpredictable fortunes

Hope for rain. Or snow. Or both. There’s a truism buried deep in a financial outlook in Manitoba Hydro’s 2025-26 annual report, released in late September: “Manitoba Hydro’s net income is highly dependent on several uncontrollable factors.”

Hurricane Simon pounds resorts and vulnerable towns along Mexico’s Pacific coast

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Simon pounded Mexico’s Pacific coast as a Category 3 storm on Sunday, its eye remaining just offshore as its most powerful winds and rain slammed people living between the Sierra Madre and the ocean.

The hurricane's center swirled parallel to the coast, closing in on the Puerto Vallarta area, where its most damaging winds and rain were expected to hit around midnight and continue through Monday morning. Its maximum sustained winds weakened late Sunday to 115 mph (185 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, but it was still expected to remain a dangerous hurricane.

That’s not good news for people in and around Puerto Vallarta, a popular tourist destination in the state of Jalisco. Just inland and uphill from the resort areas, many Mexicans live in communities where housing might not stand up to the storm.

By late Sunday, Simon's eye was moving northwest about 45 miles (75 kilometers) south of Cabo Corrientes at about 5 mph (7 kph). A senior hurricane center specialist, Philippe Papin, said this westernmost tip of mainland Mexico is the area most likely to get a direct hit from the system. Cabo Corrientes is at the southern tip of Bahia de Banderas, the wide bay where Puerto Vallarta looks out to the Pacific.

‘People count on this place’: Pembina Hwy. Giant Tiger latest location slated to close

Another Giant Tiger store in Winnipeg will shutter next year, leaving some area residents concerned about a lack of affordable groceries in the neighbourhood.

Red papers taped to the front doors of the Canadian retail chain’s location at Pembina Highway and Southpark Drive indicate it will close Feb. 27.

Doreen Yanchuk, a self-described bargain hunter, shook her head when she saw the signs Monday. The 67-year-old said she’s a regular customer at the location because it’s a five-minute drive from her home.

“They have very good sales here, which draws people to the shop because everything is expensive,” Yanchuk said.

B.C.’s Eby asks Doerkson to remove campaign chief over online post slamming Islam

VICTORIA - Whether an unelected campaign official should be held accountable for comments has become an issue in British Columbia's election, with NDP Leader David Eby calling on interim Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson to fire his party's campaign director.

Eby, speaking Saturday at an unrelated campaign announcement on Vancouver Island, said Doerkson must remove Katy Merrifield for her social media comments related to the release of a report from the leader of the anti-immigration Restore Britain party.

The privately-funded report called “Rape Gang Inquiry” was published by Rupert Lowe in June. 

Merrifield's post, first published on June 17, placed an expletive in front of the word Islam and she called on her audience to defend "Western civilization."