King Charles emerges from Doctor Who’s TARDIS to open Commonwealth Games in Glasgow

Vaval continues to dominate special teams while lighting up defensive stats

Trey Vaval’s CFL career was almost over before it even started.

A month and a half before he was scheduled to report to Winnipeg for Blue Bombers rookie camp, Vaval broke his left hand in a motocross accident. An unsuccessful jump sent him flying over the handlebars before the bike came down and crushed his hand.

“As soon as I got up and got off the track, I felt good,” said Vaval after Wednesday’s closed practice.

Even a nurse on site checked him out and told him he likely had nothing more than a sprained wrist.

Chief says minister offered money to remove highway checkstop

The chief of the Bloodvein River First Nation says a Manitoba cabinet minister offered up to $250,000 for economic development as he was trying to persuade her to remove a highway checkstop that has outraged hunters.

Chief Lisa Young said Ian Bushie, the minister of Indigenous futures, raised the money in a private conversation in September, also telling her the First Nation would receive a letter directing it to move the checkstop because it’s on a provincial highway.

Young said Bushie described the money as support for economic development in the community.

“I really felt like I was being pushed into a corner. I also felt that I was being bribed,” Young said in an interview. “It may not have come off that way. But he even further said, ‘And I’m not bribing you.’ So, I really didn’t know what to say.”

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.

Possibility of Hellebuyck’s return grows each day as pay slips away

CHICAGO — Buckle up, folks. The next plot twist in the ongoing soap opera between the Winnipeg Jets and Connor Hellebuyck could be a doozy.

Let’s start with a few cold, hard facts. Or, if you prefer: “Previously on As the Hellebuyck Turns…”

The franchise goaltender, with five years remaining on a contract extension he willingly signed with Winnipeg in 2023, refused to report to training camp last month as he awaits word on a trade request made at the end of last season. He’s the first NHL player in more than a quarter century to essentially go on strike.

The Jets are under no obligation to move Hellebuyck, but have indicated they would try to accommodate him if another team meets their needs. General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has made it clear he needs to “get this right” and wants a haul for a three-time Vezina Trophy winner and one-time Hart Trophy recipient.

Riding the Unity Bus to rally support for Canada in Alberta

It’s a chilly Thanksgiving Monday morning on the eastern edge of Alberta. A sharp wind nips at exposed skin and drab grey clouds hang low in the sky. Such weather does not encourage high spirits, but Unity Bus volunteers can’t afford to let theirs falter: in just one week, on Oct. 19, Albertans will vote on a historic question on whether to remain in Canada.