Local entrepreneur's time-tracking app Construction Clock ticking along

As a self-described blue collar construction worker, David Peters says he felt like a charlatan when he first became a tech founder.

“At the beginning, when you have no tech experience and you’re trying to convince the world, your customers, your investors that you’re the one that’s going to pull this off, yeah — you definitely feel like you’re selling a dream that you don’t know if you can pull off,” Peters said.

In 2022, the Winnipeg entrepreneur launched Construction Clock, a time tracking app for the construction industry.

The thing that gave him confidence in spite of his imposter syndrome, he said, was the amount of money he invested in the business.

Canada wraps up G7 tech ministers’ meeting after signing EU, U.K. deals

OTTAWA - Canada ended a two-day meeting of G7 industry, digital and technology ministers Tuesday after signing agreements with European partners that are taking a tougher stand on regulating artificial intelligence than the United States.

The memorandums of understanding with the European Union, Germany and the U.K. focused on digital issues, including artificial intelligence. While the U.S. sent representatives to the meeting, no such deal with the United States was announced.

During the closing press conference, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said Canada has a robust trade relationship with the U.S. but it is deepening its relationship with European countries.

"What we want to do strategically as well, as we move from reliance to resilience, is expand our trade. And we did that this past number of days," he said.

À travers le Punch de Noël, l’esprit de la communauté revient en onde

L’émission Le Punch de Noël, fera son grand retour cet hiver sur les ondes d’Envol 91 fm.

C’était une émission phare, animée par feue Denise Lécuyer. Pendant ses 28 années de bénévolat à la radio communautaire, Denise Lécuyer animait chaque samedi le Punch aux fruits. Ce rendez-vous hebdomadaire, qu’elle ne manquait sous aucun prétexte, Denise Lécuyer l’avait aussi décliné pour l’adapter à la période des fêtes de fin d’année.

Pendant 20 ans, le Punch de Noël a été un évènement immanquable pour une partie de la communauté francophone. La sœur et le mari de Denise Lécuyer, Michelle Lécuyer-Hutton et Randy Magirowski ont donc pris la décision de reprogrammer l’émission ce 20 décembre 2025.

À l’époque, les studios de la radio se transformaient en une grande assemblée pendant le Punch, “c’était vraiment fou là-dedans,” se souvient Michelle Lécuyer-Hutton, avec affection. Randy Magirowski, laisse échapper un rire.

‘We’re going up, up, up’: K-pop dominated Canada’s YouTube viewing trends in 2025

If YouTube’s year-end data is any clue, Canada is deeply in its K-pop era.

The streaming platform says Netflix’s hit animated musical film “KPop Demon Hunters” was a major driver of engagement in 2025, with several of its tracks becoming Canada’s most-watched music videos and shorts.

Meanwhile, “APT” — American singer Bruno Mars’ collaboration with K-pop star Rosé — ranked as the country’s top song of the year. It also became the fastest K-pop track to reach 1 billion views on YouTube, beating "Gangnam Style."

“KPop Demon Hunters” songs including “Golden,” “How It’s Done” and “Soda Pop” also cracked the top songs list, with the latter additionally ranking among the country’s most-watched shorts, which are YouTube's vertical short-form videos.

News publishers’ copyright lawsuit against OpenAI cleared to go ahead in Ontario

OTTAWA - An Ontario court has decided a copyright lawsuit filed by Canadian news publishers against OpenAI will proceed in that province.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, had put forward a jurisdictional challenge and argued the case should be heard in a U.S. courtroom instead.

OpenAI said the company isn’t located in Ontario and doesn’t do business in the province, and that the alleged conduct — the AI model training and crawling of web content — took place outside of Ontario.

But the decision by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice concludes the court does have jurisdiction to hear the case.

Sexual extortion of children for money is on the rise: financial intelligence agency

OTTAWA - Canada's financial intelligence agency is warning of an increase in cases of sexual extortion of children for profit — acts that often are linked to organized crime.

This type of online blackmail involves threats to distribute sexual images or videos of a victim if they don't send the perpetrators cash or, in some cases, more pictures.

In a newly published alert, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada advises banks and other businesses to be on the lookout for specific dealings and patterns that could point to extortion or other forms of child sexual exploitation.

The federal centre, known as Fintrac, identifies cash linked to money laundering by analyzing millions of pieces of information each year from banks, insurance companies, securities dealers, money service businesses, real estate brokers, casinos and others.

Australia will enforce a social media ban for children under 16 despite a court challenge

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government said young children will be banned from social media next month as scheduled despite a rights advocacy group on Wednesday challenging the world-first legislation in court.

The Sydney-based Digital Freedom Project said it had filed a constitutional challenge in the High Court on Wednesday to a law due to take effect on Dec. 10 banning Australian children younger than 16 from holding accounts on specified platforms.

Communications Minister Anika Wells referred to the challenge when she later told Parliament her government remained committed to the ban taking effect on schedule.

“We will not be intimidated by legal challenges. We will not be intimidated by Big Tech. On behalf of Australian parents, we stand firm,” Wells told Parliament.

Concerns raised about AI-powered toys and creativity, development as holiday shopping peaks

TORONTO - As parents hunt for gifts that will wow their kids this holiday season, Canadian child development and psychology experts say they should be wary of AI-powered toys because of possible harms, ranging from privacy and security violations to interference with children's creativity and development.

"Early childhood is a time where the developing brain is a little sponge. It's taking everything in and it is so malleable," said Dr. Nicole Racine, an Ottawa child psychologist and scientist at the CHEO Research Institute.

"I think about what kind of inputs do I want my kids to be having? And to be honest, it's not the inputs of an AI algorithm," said Racine, who also has two young children.

Her comments follow an advisory for parents issued last week from Fairplay, a U.S.-based organization aiming to protect children from potential technology harms. It was endorsed by dozens of experts, including child advocacy groups, pediatricians, educators and psychologists.

Video, photography, content-creation course puts focus on quality

Jeff Gordon operates JAG Videos and Photography, a Winnipeg production company specializing in commercial and corporate videos and professional headshots.

Child advocates urge government to bring back online harms legislation

OTTAWA - The dangers children face online constitute a national emergency, a coalition of child advocates and medical organizations said Thursday as they called for the federal government to take action.

"Unlike every other industry that affects children, from cars to pharmaceuticals to toys to food safety, the tech industry has been allowed to self-regulate with tragic consequences," said Andrea Chrysanthou, chair of the board for Children First Canada, at a press conference on Parliament Hill.

The advocates say children are being exploited, extorted, bullied — and in some cases, kids have died as a result of online harms.

Dr. Margot Burnell, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said doctors see the negative health impacts of social media use firsthand.

Sony, Warner and Universal sign AI music licensing deals with startup Klay

LONDON (AP) — The world's biggest music labels have struck AI licensing deals with a little-known startup named Klay Vision, the companies said Thursday, the latest in a series of deals that underlines how the technology is shaking up the music industry ’s business model.

Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, and their publishing arms, all signed separate agreements with Klay, according to an announcement posted on Warner's website.

It comes a day after Warner inked two other deals involving artificial intelligence, with startups Udio and Stability AI.

There were few details released about the agreements or about Klay, which is based in Los Angeles, and what it does.

New Manitoba Computer and Gaming Museum powers up

Founders behind the proposed Manitoba Computer & Gaming Museum aim to open a permanent location in 2027.

New podcast seeks to end polarization between Jews, Muslims

In the last two years, anecdotal evidence, surveys, police reports, rallies and counter- rallies have all indicated that the acrimony and distrust between the Canadian Jewish and Canadian Muslim communities has reached an all-time high.

In spite of this, a number of organizations and individuals across the country have been attempting to bridge the deep political divide between the two communities by encouraging respectful dialogue, compassionate listening and a search for common ground.

Yafa Sakkejha and Avi Finegold are two of those individuals.

Last month, Sakkejha, a Muslim Torontonian entrepreneur of Palestinian heritage, and Finegold, a Jewish Montrealer and rabbi, launched a new limited series podcast. Appropriately entitled In Good Faith, the podcast features interviews and discussions with representatives of the Muslim and Jewish communities about Israel, Palestine, the war in Gaza, and the challenges and concerns of their respective minority communities here in Canada.

Influencers have more reach on 5 major platforms than news media, politicians: report

OTTAWA - More than two-thirds of younger Canadians engage with political content from influencers — and influencers have significantly more reach on five major social media platforms than news media outlets or politicians, a new study indicates.

A significant portion of the political content Canadians see on the major platforms "comes directly from influencers," says the report from the McGill University and University of Toronto-led Media Ecosystem Observatory.

The report focused on posts from individuals and institutions on X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Bluesky. It did not look at or compare reach on websites, other online platforms or traditional platforms.

The researchers say they identified 1,097 influencers and collected 4.1 million of their posts from January 2024 to July 2025 on five social media platforms. Over that time period, politicians were responsible for 1.1 million posts while media outlets accounted for 2.8 million.

Artificial art a threat to human creativity

Thinking of Drew Struzan’s art — magic, really — in hand-drawn film posters, it’s hard not to think that this particular form will be another casualty of artificial intelligence, another art form reduced to cheap slop.

Winnipeg students develop critical aptitude essential for navigating media landscape

One day in the fall of 2024, two of Lily Godinez Goodman’s Grade 5 students came to her with a question: Why didn’t their Earl Grey School have a newspaper, they wondered — and if they started one, would she serve as editor-in-chief?

Students write next chapter in Free Press media literacy project

Manitoba educators and students have a new toolkit to help prepare youth to navigate the tumultuous media world.

TikTok as a tool — but for whom?

Canada already considers TikTok a threat to national security and the lives of many Canadian youth who, a recent investigation showed, collect huge amounts of personal data on every one of its users.

Emergency-vehicle traffic technology pilot a success and city should expand it, WFPS says

Winnipeg ambulances and fire trucks could soon automatically trigger green lights through most of the city, allowing faster emergency responses.

An emergency vehicle pre-emption pilot project was a success, so the city should pay to expand it next year, according to a new Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service report.

“It makes travelling through intersections safer and decreases the time it takes first responders to arrive at an emergency scene,” the report says.

WFPS will seek $1.8 million in 2026 capital funding and $200,000 to cover operating costs to expand the program. That would extend its reach to 437 “higher-risk” intersections, including the 17 included in the pilot, out of Winnipeg’s total 693.

Robot umpires are coming to MLB. Here’s how they work

NEW YORK (AP) — Robot umpires are coming to the big leagues in 2026 after Major League Baseball’s 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System.

ABS will be introduced in the form of a challenge system in which the human umpire makes each call, which can be appealed to the computer. Robot umpires have been tested in the minor leagues since 2019, with recent testing done at Triple-A since 2022, MLB spring training this year and at this summer's All-Star Game in Atlanta.

Here's what to know about MLB's robot umps.

How does the Automated Ball-Strike System work?

Hudson’s Bay seeks approval to auction off 1670 charter, court filings show

TORONTO - Hudson's Bay wants to revert to its original plan to auction off its founding charter after more parties signalled interest in buying — then donating — the 1670 document, new court documents say.

The Ontario Superior Court had been due to hear a motion earlier this month approving the sale of the artifact to the Weston family of grocer Loblaw Cos. Ltd. fame. Their holding company Wittington Investments Ltd. offered $12.5 million for the charter and planned to donate it to the Canadian Museum of History.

The hearing was adjourned after DKRT Family Corp, a holding company owned by David Thomson, objected to the Weston sale. The firm acting on behalf of the billionaire chairman of Thomson Reuters was willing to spend at least $15 million on the document he wants to donate to the Archives of Manitoba.

Hudson's Bay declined to comment Friday on news that it would return to the auction plan. The new court documents did not say who else was interested in the document but noted that the retailer will seek permission on Sept. 29 to auction off the charter on Oct. 15.