This old house is perfect

I’ve long maintained that the outside of my house is none of my business.

When it comes to the interior, my 102-year-old girl is very cute. When it comes to the exterior, her style is best described as “teardowncore.” The only look she’s serving is “haunted.”

My house did recently get a facelift in the form of new windows — she barely looks a day over 80 now — but I will admit I sometimes feel self-conscious about the peeling paint and crumbling stairs and … actually, I don’t have the word count to spare for the list. Especially as fancy-pants new builds pop up around it, replacing houses that looked a lot like mine. It’s hard not to internalize the subtext there.

I can usually counteract this with gratitude. It’s an immense privilege to own a home at all, especially one my husband and I have been able to pay for with words and creativity. It is, and has been, very good to us and I am proud of it.

Vacation shouldn’t feel like workplace risk

As summer officially arrives, many Canadians are preparing for lake weekends, road trips, family vacations and the long-awaited opportunity to step away from work for a few days. At least, that’s the theory.

Summer school for RESPs

If you’ve been saving for years for your child’s post-secondary education, and they are now ready to pursue higher learning in the fall, it’s not unusual to feel a little lost regarding how best to use that money.

That’s because the main savings vehicle for post-secondary learning, the Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP), is often complicated to unwind.

“There are definitely some unique aspects to taking out money from a RESP,” says Anthony Maros, senior private banker at BMO Private Wealth in Winnipeg.

Unlike a RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) where every withdrawal is taxable because all contributions are made with after tax money (hence the deduction on contributions), RESPs involve taxable and non-taxable withdrawals.

Rituals of ceremonies the cornerstone of Hindu weddings

Taking place over three to five days, a Hindu wedding is steeped in timeless traditions and curated customs.

While the grandeur of Hindu weddings strikes stunning notes, the rituals of the ceremonies remain the cornerstone of the celebration. The rituals are sacred offerings to seek blessings from the Divine and family and friends for the bride and groom to have a healthy and happy life.

Deeply anchored to the wedding rituals, called shaadi ki rasmein, is the role of family members. In Indian culture, it is believed that a wedding is an alliance of two families, not only an alliance of two people. Dates for the wedding ceremonies are sought by a Hindu priest who reads the bride and groom’s horoscope, or kundali to determine the auspicious time, or muhurat for the celebrations. Parents of both sides are consulted in this special first step.

While some wedding rituals are common across different regions of India, others are unique to a particular region. Among Indo- Caribbeans of the Hindu faith, wedding rituals vary. One of these cherished rituals is the Maticoor, or Matkor ceremony, which symbolizes that by expressing gratitude to Mother Earth, the lives of the new couple will be happy and harmonious.

Director brings Métis identity, language to silver screen

TORONTO — Métis culture has been around for centuries, but films set in the Métis world remain rare.

The new movie Blood Lines is intended to help fill that gap. Written and directed by Métis actor Gail Maurice (best known in these parts for playing the fiery title character of the locally lensed 2024 drama Aberdeen), it is set in an Ontario Métis community.

Maurice stars as Léonore, a mother who seeks to reconnect with her grown daughter Beatrice (Dana Solomon) after years of alcohol-fuelled neglect.

Beatrice is unforgiving, and is soon distracted by the presence of a new woman in the community. Chani (Derica Lafrance) has come to town searching for her biological family. Clearly enamoured, Beatrice offers to help.

Winnipeg Habitat home brings tears to the eye of single dad from Africa

Suleman Gado’s eyes filled with tears when the keys to his first house in Canada were placed in his hands Friday morning.

Beside him, his two sons, Gado and Mohammed, watched quietly as years of sacrifice and perseverance paid off.

“Very exciting day to me,” Suleman said. “And very emotional because I do not believe what I’m seeing today. A lot of amazing people who came out.”

Originally from Ghana, Suleman left his home country in 2015 to seek safety and a brighter future.

Palestinian Canadians share keepsakes, memories in CMHR’s Nakba exhibition

Fouad Sahyoun was four years old when his family fled their home in Haifa amid bombardment from encroaching Israeli paramilitary forces in 1948.

“We took a few suitcases and (some) money and we went to Alexandria. We were never allowed to go back,” said Sahyoun, a Palestinian Canadian living in Montreal. “When the money ran out, we became real refugees.”

The 82-year-old is one of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced in 1948 following the partitioning of Palestine and during the creation of the State of Israel. This event is known as the Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic.

Sahyoun’s story and the deeds to his family’s seized property in Haifa are included in Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present, a new exhibition open to the public Saturday at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Most Canadian teens have seen violence, gore online: survey

As Canada edges toward legislation meant to protect youths online, a new survey suggests most teens in the country have encountered real violence or gore on the internet.

Eighty-five per cent of the 1,007 teens who participated in an online survey in January commissioned by scholarly organization DIY: Digital Safety and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, reported seeing either form of brutality online.

More than 70 per cent had seen videos of physical fights, 65 per cent had viewed police violence, and 52 per cent watched someone being injured or killed in a war. Ten per cent reported seeing child sexual abuse material.

Half of respondents said they had watched footage of late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk being assassinated on stage at Utah Valley University last September, while 33 per cent had viewed mass or school shooting videos.

Bruce Oake Recovery Centre staff lead participants from darkness, despair of addiction

The Bruce Oake Recovery Centre is awash in summer light. Sun streams through the tall windows at the end of each hallway; through the glass walls of the group rooms, where the men here to recover from addiction are meeting; and through the entry atrium, where an urn holding the ashes of the centre’s namesake rests inside a glass case.

PM Carney says 24 Sussex to be restored with fundraising campaign, design competition

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled plans Friday to restore the prime minister's residence at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa through a national design competition and fundraising campaign.

The prime minister said the winning design proposal will be announced by Canada Day of next year.

Carney said the heritage building is a "symbol of the nation" but has fallen into a "critical state" after decades of neglect, and he does not want to see it crumble.

“It has not been cared for with the respect it deserves," Carney said at a news conference outside the building on Friday.

Australia plans to strengthen laws banning children from social media

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government plans to strengthen laws that ban children younger than 16 from social media platforms, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Observers said on Friday the government was responding to evidence that the ban on young children holding accounts on platforms including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube had failed since it came into force on Dec. 10 last year. Australia was the first country in the world to pass legislation keeping youth off social media, but others have since followed.

Albanese told Parliament on Thursday this government was considering options to strengthen the ban.

“We’re working on that as a priority because this is something that other generations didn’t have to deal with, which is why it’s complex,” Albanese told Parliament.

Winnipeg co-ops among models examined in film

We see theatre artist Debbie Patterson making her way toward the Old Grace Housing Co-operative’s entrance in her wheelchair, then settling inside for a steaming cup of tea. The co-op is her home.

“Well, I’ve always loved this neighbourhood and wanted to stay in this neighbourhood. I lived in a big, three-storey Wolseley house and then got MS and couldn’t do the stairs,” she says in a voiceover.

“Having a place I could move into that was completely accessible was just a godsend at a perfect time when I needed to stop living in my house, so I could stay in my neighbourhood and continue to be in a safe place.”

It’s one of the opening scenes of Meeting a Moment: The Art of Social Architecture, directed by Danielle Sturk and produced by Leslie Stafford, which appears on CBC Gem today and airs on CBC TV Saturday.

Heat catches Europe’s fashion industry unprepared as models face the sun in fur and wool

PARIS (AP) — The most coveted accessory at the Paris Fashion Week shows this week was not a bag, a sneaker or a watch. It was an ice pack.

As a historic heat wave gripped the French capital, fashion houses fought to keep guests cool with mist machines, chilled towels, parasols and iced Evian on silver platters.

It wasn’t enough. Historic venues sweltered, guests were packed in tight, air conditioning was absent or inadequate and water ran short — at one house, organizers weighed serving none at all, having found only plastic bottles to hand out.

That mattered because Paris Fashion Week is not a minor cultural event.

National pride meets breathable mesh: A look at the design of World Cup uniforms

BEAVERTON, Ore. (AP) — Heat. Moisture. National pride.

These were top of mind as Nike designed its uniform kits for this year’s World Cup, including for football powerhouses France and Brazil as well as the U.S. and Canada in their role as host nations.

In a tournament that has seen storm delays and temperatures hovering around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) in some locations, the first step was to ensure players' performance and comfort.

Phil McCartney, chief innovation, design and product officer for Nike, said the company worked with athletes, coaches and football federations to understand how uniforms affect the game.

Europe’s extreme heat would be impossible without climate change, scientists say

The record-breaking heat that's scorching Europe day and night this month would not have been possible without climate change, according to a new study.

The World Weather Attribution rapid study released Friday found that the heat would have been virtually impossible just five decades ago, and is 200 times more likely today than it would have been 20 years ago.

Millions in France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe are experiencing extreme temperatures and humidity this week associated with a heat dome. Daytime temperatures have topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in many places, while high nighttime temperatures have also made it harder to cool down and recover.

The scientists estimated that a heat wave with similar characteristics occurring in the climate of June 1976 would have been about 3.5 degrees Celsius (6.3 Fahrenheit) cooler during the day and about 2 degrees Celsius cooler (3.6 Fahrenheit) in 2003. The nighttime temperatures would have been about 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.3 Fahrenheit) cooler in June 1976 and about 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 Fahrenheit) cooler in 2003.

Province’s security enhancement fund allocated to targeted cultural centres, places of worship, justice minister says

A $1-million security enhancement fund for places of worship and cultural centres announced in January has been fully allocated but the funds have not yet flowed, Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said this week.

Researchers put hail under microscope, take stock of June 9 storm

Jack Hamilton, a researcher with the Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory, and his team have been gathering evidence and data from the June 9 storm that brought record rainfall to Winnipeg and surrounding communities

Growing number of Manitoba youths are addicted to vaping

A few minutes after the final classes of the day end at Grant Park High School on a recent afternoon, students stream out of the building, headed in myriad directions.

At the railing outside the front doors, several teens stop to vape.

Classmates and teachers walk past without a second glance. Behaviour that once might have raised eyebrows now barely registers.

For many Manitoba teens, vaping — using a battery-powered device to heat flavoured “juice,” most often containing highly addictive nicotine, into an inhalable vapour — is a habit deeply woven into their daily lives.

Montana DEQ works toward impairment designation for Big Hole River

The Big Hole River, a blue-ribbon fishery that’s become a focal point in a years-long debate over nuisance algae growth, is poised to receive an impairment designation.

At an open-house meeting in Divide on Tuesday, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality announced that the Big Hole, a mellow freestone river critical to southwest Montana’s outdoor recreation and agriculture economies, is struggling as a result of ecologically detrimental nutrient loading.

The term DEQ is using in its discussion of the Big Hole is eutrophication, which describes the link between algae growth and excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. When there’s too much algae in a river or lake, dissolved oxygen falls, imperiling fish and the aquatic life they feed on.

Algal growth is also unpopular with members of the recreating public because it can make wade-fishing a slipperier — and therefore more perilous — endeavor. And it drives down biodiversity in the macroinvertebrate population, which has repercussions for fish and other species higher up the aquatic food web. Andy Ulven, who leads DEQ’s water quality division, told Montana Free Press on Tuesday that a eutrophication listing would “formalize that there is an issue on the mainstem” of the Big Hole. He added that the agency proposal is still in draft stage and he doesn’t anticipate a final designation for the Big Hole until 2027 at the earliest.

Mayor calls Portage and Main reopening a success

Mayor Scott Gillingham has hailed the reopening of Portage Avenue and Main Street as a success, nearly a year after the downtown intersection became accessible to pedestrians again.

The future of the circular concourse beneath the intersection is still up in the air, while city staff conduct a cost-benefit analysis and consult building owners at Portage and Main’s corners.

“I’m glad we made the decision to reopen Portage and Main. It’s working well, it looks great,” Gillingham said. “So many people that were opposed to it told me now they’ve changed their mind.”

Saturday marks one year since the intersection reopened to foot traffic. Portage and Main was closed to pedestrians since 1979 as part of a commercial development deal.

Saskatchewan NDP urges province to repeal pronoun law affecting LGBTQ+ youth

REGINA - Nearly three years after Saskatchewan's pronoun law came into effect, LGBTQ+ groups and the province's Opposition are warning of its consequences.

"We see concerns about incidents of discrimination going up," NDP Leader Carla Beck said at a news conference Thursday. "People (are) scared to talk about issues that would make students feel loved and seen and accepted."

In August 2023, Premier Scott Moe's Saskatchewan Party government imposed rules that require parental consent for children under 16 to change their names or pronouns at school.

The rules were challenged in court, but months later Moe's government invoked the notwithstanding clause and put them into legislation.