Roomie deals royal blush at fellows’ poker party

Ontario to move northwest regions to permanent daylight time

TORONTO - Ontario is set to move parts of the province's northwest region to permanent daylight time in order to align with Manitoba, Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford told The Canadian Press.

Rickford said there is overwhelming consensus among municipalities, First Nations and businesses to make the time change permanent.

The province intends to make a regulatory change in the Time Act on Nov. 1 to allow regions west of the 90th meridian to align with Manitoba, he said.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced last month the province would stop twice-annual clock changes and stay on daylight time year-round in the central time zone, leaving it one hour ahead of the other Prairie provinces rather than aligned with them.

Former Oilers teammates square off for first time

Calvin Pickard has been many things to Stuart Skinner.

An ally, sounding board, confidante and most importantly, a close friend.

They were a goalie tandem for parts of three seasons with the Edmonton Oilers, making two trips to the Stanley Cup final, combining for 29 playoff wins, but falling just short of achieving the ultimate goal on both of those occasions.

They were opponents just once last season when the Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins met for the first time since the trade that shipped Skinner to Pennsylvania, but it was Tristan Jarry – the guy he was traded for – standing at the opposite side of the rink.

Tenants battling landlords find help in short supply from province

For nearly three years, Quincy Houdayer and Avery Helm repeatedly pressed their landlord to address plumbing failures, water damage and other maintenance problems at their West Broadway apartment, with records showing some issues persisted until the couple turned to the Residential Tenancies Branch.

Emails and text messages between the tenants, Clearwater Management and the RTB reviewed by the Free Press document recurring leaks and flooding, periods without heat or hot water, concerns about mould and basement conditions and repeated followups from the couple seeking repairs.

“Most of the experiences we’ve had with them can be boiled down to, like, they either are very dismissive about it, they act like it’s not their problem… or they will just fully, blatantly ignore you,” Helm said, adding that the only way to get Clearwater to respond was to threaten going to the RTB, a provincial government agency.

RTB data obtained by the Free Press also shows 13 orders involving the three-building complex at 193-197 Furby St. in 2026 alone. All but one favoured the tenant, while the remaining order ruled in favour of both the tenant and landlord on different items.

Comparing the Iran and Vietnam Wars

The other day I asked my students in U.S. foreign policy to think about the relevance of the Vietnam War in relation to the ongoing war in Iran. More specifically, I wanted them to identify the similarities and differences between the two wars.

Lobster Trap wins Dafoe book prize

Greg Mercer’s The Lobster Trap: The Global Fight for a Seafood on the Brink has won the 2026 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize.

The $12,000 award, named after John Wesley Dafoe, the former editor of the Manitoba Free Press and Winnipeg Free Press, is presented annually to the best book on topics including “Canada, the West, and Canadians, as well as the Canadian nation in international affairs.”

Published by McClelland & Stewart in August 2025, The Lobster Trap examines the multi-billion dollar lobster industry and the impacts of climate change, trade wars and overfishing. The Lobster Trap is Mercer’s first book.

The award will be presented later this fall.