News publishers launch copyright suit against AI company Anthropic in Ontario

OTTAWA - A coalition of news publishers that includes Canada’s largest newspapers is suing the AI company Anthropic in an Ontario court.

Postmedia, Torstar, The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press say Anthropic infringed on their copyright by using their content to develop its large language AI model Claude.

"Anthropic has capitalized on the commercial success of its AI models, building an expansive suite of services, and raised significant capital — all without obtaining a valid licence from any of the News Media Companies," says the statement of claim.

"In doing so, Anthropic has been substantially and unjustly enriched to the detriment of the News Media Companies."

Salvation Army calls on Winnipeggers to donate merchandise as sales soar

The Salvation Army is taking donated merchandise from other regions to stock its Winnipeg thrift stores as increasing sales outpace local donations.

Retail activity at the charity’s eight Winnipeg locations grew more than 10 per cent year over year during several months, from January through April, and again in June.

Although local donations remain strong, they haven’t kept pace with demand, prompting the organization to supplement inventory with merchandise from elsewhere.

Ted Troughton, managing director of the Salvation Army’s thrift store operations, said rising living costs are bringing in new customers.

Diesel bill adds to cost-price squeeze on farm

Blessed with a week of good weather, most Manitoba farmers are now in the home stretch of harvest and beginning to assess whether their crop will earn enough to cover the cost of growing it.

Commodity market prices have surged well above the numbers used to prepare production budgets earlier this year, with the price of top-quality milling wheat up 27 per cent over a year ago. Canola and soybeans are up 36 per cent and oats by 14 per cent.

That’s a significant boost for the crops harvested in good shape before rainy weather shut down operations for a couple of weeks during the critical harvesting window. However, upwards of half of the province’s crop overall was affected by the bad weather, resulting in yet-to-be calculated yield and quality losses.

Then there’s the cost side of the balance sheet.

Ottawa adding new express entry points for immigrants in ‘high-wage’ jobs

OTTAWA - Ottawa is adding new express entry points for some permanent residency applicants in "high-wage" jobs, Immigration Minister Lena Diab said Friday.

The government also plans to remove the requirement for an employer to prove they can't find a qualified Canadian for those jobs.

The policies, which will take effect on Nov. 3, will apply to applicants who already have Canadian work experience, or who have a job offer in a high-wage field such as engineering.

The government considers a high-wage job one that pays at least 1.3 times the national median wage. The new policy offers more points for an occupation's wage level, with higher paying jobs being worth more express entry points.

NDP expects crypto, data centre electricity levy to shave about $50 annually off residential Hydro bills

Revenue from the province’s new electricity levy on cryptocurrency businesses and large AI data centres will go toward offsetting residential bills, rather than the coffers of cash-strapped Manitoba Hydro.

Jets-linked biometrical hockey skills platform launches

True North Sports and Entertainment Ltd., the ownership company behind the Winnipeg Jets, is throwing its weight into a new business producing data-filled analyses.

More damaging AI hacking incidents to come unless changes are made, scientists warn

OTTAWA - Dozens of Canadian academics are among an international group of scientists calling for better containment measures for AI models.

"Multiple organizations have disclosed high-profile security failures: their AI models bypassed insufficiently sandboxed environments to compromise the systems of external organizations," they say in an open letter.

The letter, released Tuesday, says that unless immediate changes are made to how AI is developed and deployed, "such incidents will continue to occur, and future incidents will be far more damaging to our exposed critical infrastructure."

They say there is a need for more research on AI safety as well as emphasis on containment technologies and procedures. The scientists also want to see an international body that standardizes best practices.

Protein crests current appetite wave

Holiday feasts often reflect the latest fads and trends influencing how we eat.

This Thanksgiving’s table is likely to feature more Canadian content than it might otherwise as a point of national pride.

In the recent past, the carb-free craze has made cauliflower a substitute for the mashed potatoes on some family spreads. Some have gone meatless, while others have added more. Still others offer gluten-free, dairy-free or fat-free alternatives.

Nowadays, it seems consumers can’t get enough protein. Desmond Sobool, deputy chief economist Farm Credit Canada, told a recent economic update for the agri-food sector there are two converging influences in play.

Phoneless concert a beautiful chance to bask in moment

Outside the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, digital billboards flashed fans their singular photo op for the night: “I took this photo before I saw Phoebe Bridgers: The Lost Tour 2026.”

It is, as it is for so many other people, my only documentation of a concert by one of my favourite artists. The American singer-songwriter — who I discovered at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 2018 — has had a meteoric rise in the past few years, winning three Grammys in 2024 as one third of Boygenius, the indie-rock supergroup rounded out by Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, and opening for Taylor Swift on select dates of her titanic Eras Tour.

Now, Bridgers is touring in support of Lost Weekend, her third album and first since 2020’s Punisher. It’s a feat of a record, a richly textured meditation on loss and grief, written in the aftermath of the death of her dad, with whom she had a complicated relationship.

So she is in a position to not only play multiple sold-out arena shows, but also insist that those shows be phone-free.

Heated hiring debate over iced coffee

Apparently, we have found the latest battleground in the generational war over what constitutes professionalism: iced coffee.

Not wages. Not work-life balance. Not whether employees should answer emails after 5 p.m.

There has been quite a bit of discussion lately about whether it is appropriate for a job candidate to walk into an interview carrying an iced coffee. To some hiring managers, it is a clear sign of poor judgment, a lack of professionalism or an attitude that says, “This isn’t really a big deal.” To others, it is simply a person walking into a meeting with a drink they picked up on the way.

I have to admit, as an HR person, I can see both sides.

Royal Winnipeg Ballet workers unionize with MGEU

Workers at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet have unionized.

The RWB workers’ application to join the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union as a single bargaining unit was approved by the Manitoba Labour Board Thursday.

The new Local 466 will include employees of both the RWB and the RWB School, including teaching staff, student boarding staff and accompanists as well as those working in marketing, development, facilities and security, data services, finance, food services and administration.

Physiotherapists, students of the RWB School and employees represented by another bargaining unit will not be members of Local 466.

Special House committee votes to push forward major projects bill

OTTAWA - A special House of Commons committee created to study the Liberals' new economic bill agreed Friday to limit the period it can receive submissions and hear from witnesses.

Members of Parliament passed a motion to begin clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-39 in mid-November. The House is set to sit until mid-December.

The committee agreed to invite Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon, Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin, Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu and Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc to appear before the committee.

It also agreed to issue a press release asking interested stakeholders to submit briefs to the committee by Oct. 26.

Diesel-fuelled price hikes could stoke food inflation this fall, experts warn

Food experts and economists expect the global run-up in diesel prices will have consumers bracing for a tough winter at the grocery store.

The ongoing war in Iran has driven a global energy shock that has spurred higher prices on regular gasoline as well as diesel. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is disrupting oil shipments from the Gulf region, as well as other critical inputs such as fertilizer.

The diesel that fuels trucks and ships is a key input for Canada's food supply chain, where high transportation costs feed directly into the price consumers see on store shelves.

Statistics Canada's dashboard tracking cost hikes across the food supply chain shows that diesel prices were up 75 per cent year-over-year in August.

Manitoba Federation of Labour calls for independent review of Workers Compensation Board

A major labour association is calling for an independent Workers Compensation Board review as Manitoba leads the country in workplace injury rates.

Last year, 2.5 employees in every 100 reported a workplace injury serious enough to take time off, WCB tracking shows. The number is higher than any other province — just as it has been for the past three years, according to the Manitoba Federation of Labour.

(In 2025, the next highest time loss injury rate was in British Columbia: 2.04 people for every 100.)

“Our prevention work in Manitoba is failing Manitobans,” said Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour. “We need an independent review to help shine a light on, ‘What is happening on the prevention front of WCB?’”

Manitoba tourism reached new heights in 2025

Despite a devastating wildfire season, tourism in Manitoba hit record highs in 2025.

Amazon in the weeds over damage to tall grass reserve

Patricia Dutchak was devastated when she first saw the wide swaths of crushed grass and upturned soil at Winnipeg’s Rotary Prairie Nature Park, a municipal heritage site.

“This is a very rare ecosystem, a remnant of tall grass prairie, there’s barely any left in the world, and to come here and see all this damage was heartbreaking,” Dutchak, chair of the Transcona Rotary Club’s parks committee, says.

The club is responsible for maintaining the protected green space, which was significantly damaged this summer when a fence between the park and the neighbouring Amazon distribution centre was relocated.

The 20-acre nature preserve is situated on a narrow tract of land on Regent Avenue West in the commercial heart of Transcona. The park received its municipal heritage designation in 1992 and is, today, surrounded by high-traffic streets, industrial warehouses and car dealerships.

Real journalists matter in an AI world

An algorithm can decide what you see, but it doesn’t report the news. Nunatsiaq News, an award-winning newspaper in Nunavut, recently reported that a so-called “news” website was posting AI-generated articles about the north by stealing real news stories produced by real journalists.

The articles were supposedly written by Nunavut correspondent Leah Qammaniq — a fake journalist, with a fake photo and a fake bio.

Governor General Louise Arbour warned us of fake news in her installation speech in June. She said, “We must continue to protect the public space in which our national debates take place: from schools and universities to the media, political parties, unions and civil society organizations …With instant access to vast amounts of information, it is very tempting to pay little attention to the reliability of sources. The lines between knowledge and belief, between truth and falsehood, between facts and assumptions, are increasingly blurred. AI could be threatening not only the way we live and work, but also the control we exercise over our own destiny.”

The Government of Canada has recognized the problem as well. Its recent discussion paper, Enhancing trust in artificial intelligence through increased transparency, stated, “Canadians encounter news reporting, product reviews, and audio-visual content across the internet, often without any indication of whether it was written by a person, generated by an AI system, or produced through some combination of both … A particular concern within this broader landscape is that generative AI greatly enables the creation and dissemination of deceptive or misleading content.”

Budding food scrap pickup services across the US want your coffee grounds and eggshells

DETROIT (AP) — Every Monday, Ricky Blanding drives his Ford Ranger pickup truck around Detroit along a carefully planned route.

Blanding hops in and out of the truck, grabbing buckets of food scraps from porches and restaurants, piling those scraps into bins in the truck bed and driving them to a composting site.

Blanding is the CEO of Scrap Soils, one of the many budding food waste collection services across the country helping to divert food from landfills and make composting more accessible. It's especially important for those who can't compost at home, who live in cities without municipal curbside pickup or who can't get to a drop-off location.

Composting leftover coffee grounds, eggshells, carrot tops and more reduces the amount of food that goes into dumps where it produces the potent greenhouse gas methane. It also ultimately helps create healthy soil for gardeners and urban farmers.

Broadening prediction-market gambling a bad idea

Let’s make a prediction: sooner or later, when Canadian governments find a way to take their own cut of the action, prediction-contract gambling on everything from sports to entertainment to political decisions is going to come to Canada.

And that’s a horrible, dangerous, pernicious idea.

Unless you have particular access to information — either inside information or strategic information based on skills or education — you’re not likely to make money at it. In fact, structurally, you’re likely to lose. In prediction markets, you basically pay an amount, plus fees from the company involved, to bet on whether something will or will not happen within a certain time frame. The amount you pay for your contract depends on how other people are also betting.

As Wealthsimple describes it, “You buy whichever side you think is right. Prices move with demand, so if the market leans towards one outcome, the more that side costs. If a lot of people are backing the TSX to finish above 38,000, yes gets more expensive and no gets cheaper.”

Manitoba marks end of sending simple workplace problems to doctor’s office

There are some changes in the workplace that make you think: “Well, it’s about time.”

This is one of them.

Starting Oct. 1, Manitoba changed the rules around sick notes. I think it is going to be a wonderful change — not just for doctors and patients, but for employers, employees and the way we think about accountability at work.

The change comes from Bill 11, the Employment Standards Code Amendment Act (Sick Notes for Employee Absences), which received royal assent on June 1 and came into force Thursday. Under the new rules, employers generally cannot require a sick note for an illness or injury unless the employee is away for more than one week or has been absent because of illness or injury for more than 10 scheduled workdays in the calendar year.

Winnipeg board game company charts winning path

Dennis Northcott has launched a game without frontiers.

The Winnipeg entrepreneur is the co-designer of Galactic Cruise, a board game published last year by Kinson Key Games LLC, the business he co-founded. Since its release, Galactic Cruise has been translated into 11 languages and sold around 50,000 copies worldwide.

It’s also one of three finalists for this year’s Deutsche Spiele Preis, a prestigious community-voted board game award. Northcott will travel to Essen, Germany, later this month, where the winner will be announced at Spiel Essen, an annual board game trade fair.

“It’s been amazing,” Northcott said of the response to Galactic Cruise during an interview in his Island Lakes neighbourhood home earlier this week. “The sales have been great, but it’s also been amazing in terms of people giving their reviews.”

Time for AI guardrails is right now

The genie is most definitely out of the bottle.