‘This is people’s lives’: Canadian soccer star Quinn continues trans advocacy

VANCOUVER -

A Canadian soccer star is speaking out about the need to make sports safe for trans athletes — and the world safer for trans people — as restrictive laws come into effect across North America.

“This is people's lives," said Quinn, a midfielder for the Vancouver Rise of the Northern Super League. "Like, this isn't something to take lightly."

It's been more than five years since Quinn, 30, publicly came out as nonbinary.

Functional menswear brand dEDIGER back in fashion

Tanner Brooks gets things done.

The 32-year-old lives in the country, drives a truck, works all day as an electrician and helps out on his family’s farm on evenings and weekends. Every so often, he drives into the city to grab a drink with his buddies or to take his girlfriend on a date.

Not bad for someone who doesn’t exist.

Brooks is the customer avatar for dEDIGER, a Winnipeg-based menswear brand that offers everyday durable, functional clothing. Shelley Ediger started the brand almost 15 years ago, put it on the backburner in 2018, and relaunched it in August with the help of Naomi Shindak.

Advocate’s report calls for urgent reform of child-welfare system

Cali Derksen was 14 when she threw a few things into a backpack and left home, fleeing weapons and threats of violence for what she believed would be a safer place.

Now 16, she said Child and Family Services did “good” by removing her from the home.

“But after they did that, I didn’t think much really came out of them,” she said Thursday at the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth office at 320 Donald St. “I had to call Kids Help line. I had to find solutions for myself in order to feel safe… because CFS wasn’t supporting me.”

Derksen’s experience is one of 17 shared in a new report calling for urgent reform of Manitoba’s child-welfare system. Youth in care say they are often left unsupported, unprepared and unheard.

Verdicts against Meta, YouTube validate concerns long raised by parents, child safety advocates

For years, parents, teenagers, pediatricians, educators and whistleblowers have pushed the idea that social media is detrimental to young people's mental health and can lead to addiction, eating disorders, sexual exploitation and suicide.

For the first time, juries in two states took their side.

In Los Angeles on Wednesday, a jury found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services. In New Mexico, a jury determined that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

Tech watchdog groups, families and children’s advocates cheered the jury decisions.

Province turning former university building downtown into transitional living units for homeless people

The $24.4-million purchase and renovation project at 447 Webb Place was confirmed in Tuesday’s provincial budget, although the site opened a couple of months ago.

Province’s first Indigenous parenting event draws hundreds in person, online

Amara LeClair starts with the basic questions: Where are you from? Who are your grandparents? Did they forage?

NDP bolsters autism support amid families’ demands

The Manitoba government will include $30 million in Tuesday’s budget to address the demand for autism services, after families have demanded more help.

St.Amant, a non-profit that supports people with developmental disabilities and autism, will receive some funding, Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said Monday.

“It’s going to address some of the wait lists they have,” she said, adding it will “bolster their autism-specific supports.”

More medical professionals may be able to meaningfully diagnose autism, Fontaine said.

Provincial budget includes free transit passes for youths in Winnipeg, three other cities

Manitoba’s NDP government will make it more affordable for youths as young as 12 to get to school, jobs and activities with free transit passes.

Parents warned about measles risk over spring break, religious celebrations

Manitoba Health is urging parents to consider the risk of measles while travelling or attending large gatherings over spring break or upcoming holidays, in a bid to slow down Canada’s worst active outbreak.

Canadians increasingly choosing to stream with ads as prices rise: report

Canadians subscribed to streaming platforms again faced rising costs last year, as a new report estimates the 10 leading providers hiked prices by an average of seven per cent.

The annual Couch Potato Report, released Monday by Convergence Research, said consumers are continuing to pivot from traditional cable and satellite television packages toward alternatives like Netflix, Crave and Disney Plus, despite those streaming giants having upped their prices in recent years.

In 2024, the top streaming providers had raised their prices by an average of eight per cent for Canadian customers, according to new data from the firm.

The trend comes as streamers continue to push viewers toward plans that include advertisements. Those packages cost less for subscribers but drive additional revenue for the companies because they are able to sell commercial spots.

The autism strategy gap is already here

In Winnipeg classrooms, the autism strategy gap is not theoretical. It is visible every day.

Archbishop urges Catholics to learn about Indigenous spirituality

Roman Catholics will benefit by taking time to learn more about Indigenous spirituality, the head of the Archdiocese of Winnipeg says.

Black people in Canada less likely to fill medication prescriptions due to cost, study says

TORONTO - A new study says the cost of medication is stopping Black people in Canada from filling their prescriptions at a higher rate than white people.

The research published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that Black people are less likely to have drug plans to cover the cost.

Senior author Bukola Salami says the findings show the consequences of socioeconomic inequalities for Black people's health.

The researchers analyzed data from five years of the Canadian Community Health Survey and found that about 10 to 15 per cent of Black adults hadn't filled their prescriptions or had skipped doses, compared to about six per cent of white adults.

Security cameras added to Beacon program will bolster business confidence

Snapshots of downtown Winnipeg cover a wall.

They aren’t pictures — they are screens of security footage down Portage Avenue, by True North Square, off Smith Street.

Nearby, a Downtown Community Safety Partnership staffer takes calls. They might change the view on the mounted screens, flipping between 49 security cameras.

Downtown organizations and private businesses are increasingly linking their exterior security camera feeds to a central hub in the DCSP office. It has been using the footage to track issues such as opioid poisonings, and keep an eye on people who may need a mental health check, over the past couple years.

Finance minister’s budget preview focuses on little feet

Manitoba’s finance minister — who had bags of children’s shoes in tow — announced Friday that families and affordability measures would feature prominently in Tuesday’s budget.

Adrien Sala went to Linwood Child Centre, his children’s former daycare, to announce that 2,000 childcare spaces would open within the province.

Tuesday’s budget will also include a 2.9 per cent increase to wages paid to early childhood educators as of September.

“We’re looking to make sure that we invest in you guys, our next generation,” Sala said, steps from children at Linwood.

Family says teen re-victimized by school’s lax response after reporting sexual assault

With its soft lighting and cosy couches, the classroom hangout at the River East-Transcona School Division high school is supposed to be a safe space for students to decompress.

But that changed one Monday in January.

That day, after the supervising teacher had left the room, a teenage girl says she was sitting on the floor with her back against a love seat when a much larger male student sat down on the cushion directly behind her, boxing her in between his knees.

She said he reached over and forced his hands beneath her shirt, grabbing her breasts for several minutes while she froze and did not speak or move.

For vintage sewing-machine aficionado, it’s all about seeing them stitch again

Dave Johnson, a semi-retired snowplow operator who also worked as a homebuilder, collects, repairs and uses vintage sewing machines.

Winnipeg and ground squirrels

In a move shocking to many local animal lovers, the City of Winnipeg has opted to go ahead with its plan to kill ground squirrels at nine city parks and fields via methods that animal advocates say will cause prolonged pain and suffering.

Shopping bill is a good pre-emptive strike

On the face of it, it looks like a solution desperately hunting for a problem.

But that’s sometimes the way proactive legislation looks.

As first salvos go, Manitoba’s Bill 49 should probably be viewed not an effort not to deal with an imaginary problem, but one being put in place to ensure that the problem doesn’t arrive.

What the bill does is to add individual pricing to the province’s collection of improper business practices.

Teenagers sue Musk’s xAI claiming image-generator made sexually explicit images of them as minors

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Three teenagers in Tennessee sued Elon Musk's xAI this week, claiming the company's image-generation tools were used to morph real photos of them into explicitly sexual images.

The high school students, who are seeking to proceed under pseudonyms, filed the lawsuit in California, where xAI — Musk's artificial intelligence company — has its headquarters. They are seeking class-action status in order to represent what the lawsuit says are thousands of victims like themselves who either are minors or were minors when sexually explicit images of them were created.

According to the lawsuit, Jane Doe 1 was alerted anonymously in December that someone was distributing sexually explicit images of her on a social media website.

“At least five of these files, one video and four images, depicted her actual face and body in settings with which she was familiar, but morphed into sexually explicit poses," the lawsuit states. It claims the person distributing the images knew Doe and used xAI's image generation tools to turn real photos of her into sexually abusive ones. One of the images was taken from a homecoming photo. Another was taken from a high school yearbook.

Downtown mulls uncertain impact of Fairmont downtime

As the Fairmont Winnipeg hotel prepares to close its doors this summer for a months-long renovation project, surrounding businesses say they’re waiting to see what the impact will be on Winnipeg’s downtown.

Any time Palomino Club owner Christian Stringer books an act outside of the province, he’ll set them up at the Fairmont — most recently, DJ Pauly D of Jersey Shore fame — and a chunk of his customer base is out-of-towners staying at the nearby hotel looking for a bit of fun.

“(The Fairmont) has always been the five-star (hotel) for us,” Stringer said Thursday.

He said he’s not sure how much the hotel closing from July until spring of 2027 will affect business. He worries it might complicate bringing in performers from outside of Canada — a practice he’s already had to cut back on as the Canadian dollar has made it harder to meet the asking price of U.S. acts.

Residents pigeonhole hobbyist’s backyard aviary as health risk, nuisance

Some Winnipeg residents will flock to city hall next week, aiming to oppose a racing-pigeon aviary in their neighbourhood.

However, supporters of the practice say the birds should ruffle few feathers.

The city’s urban planning and design division approved the construction of a 3.9-square-metre (42-square-foot) structure to house racing pigeons in a Strathcona Street backyard.

“The relatively small structure is significantly smaller than a vehicle garage, and would not be out of character on the lot,” writes city planner Dylan Chyz-Lund, in a city report.