Manitoba law to protect women from partner abuse on horizon

More than three years after a law targeting intimate partner violence received royal assent, the legislation known as Clare’s Law will come into force in Manitoba in March.

The law allows for critical information held by authorities about a person’s history of violence, abuse or exploitation to be disclosed to their intimate partner.

The legislation is named after Clare Wood, a British woman who was murdered in 2009 by an ex-boyfriend who had a lengthy criminal record of sexual violence. The United Kingdom was the first jurisdiction to adopt such legislation.

Before the law comes into force in Manitoba, a regulation was needed that set out the policy and procedures for application, assessing risk, disclosing and sharing information. The Disclosure to Protect Against Intimate Partner Violence Act required a program be established, a provincial government document on the proposed regulation posted online last April stated.

Advocates push for advance MAID requests two years after Parliament recommendation

OTTAWA - Sandra Demontigny knew something wasn't right when she couldn't remember buying herself a new pair of boots. They were a splurge — a little out of character for the mother of three — and she had been excited about bringing them home.

"I saw them near the door and I asked my kids, 'Who bought these boots? I've never seen them,'" she said.

"The kids were saying, 'No, (they're) yours. You bought them and you really like them."

Sliding her feet inside, she realized she couldn't remember buying them. "I started crying," she said.

Canada responsible for ensuring safe First Nations housing, Federal Court rules in $5-B class-action suit

A Federal Court judge has recognized Canada is responsible for ensuring safe housing on First Nations in a $5-billion class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of two reserves in Manitoba and Ontario.

Danielle Smith becomes first Alberta premier in 90 years to face citizen recall

EDMONTON - Danielle Smith has become the second Alberta premier – and the first in almost 90 years – to face a citizen-led petition drive to get her removed from her seat in the legislature.

Smith and two more of her United Conservative Party caucus members saw recall campaigns officially approved and launched Wednesday by Elections Alberta.

In total, 20 in the 47-member UCP caucus are facing recall petitions. A formal signature-gathering drive has also been launched against one Opposition NDP member, Amanda Chapman.

Heather VanSnick is leading the petition drive in Smith’s southern Alberta riding of Brooks-Medicine Hat. VanSnick needs to collect just over 12,000 signatures to move the process forward.

Métis federation launches second class action over ’60s Scoop

The Manitoba Métis Federation has launched a second court action over the apprehension of Métis children during the ’60s Scoop.

The federation and Albert Beck, a Métis man who was adopted by a non-Indigenous family, filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the Manitoba government in the Court of King’s Bench last week.

The proposed class action seeks damages over the harm suffered by Métis kids who were taken into care and placed with non-Indigenous families in Canada and the United States over several decades.

“The (‘60s) Scoop caused significant, irreparable harm to the Red River Métis children that were removed from their homes and communities. They suffered trauma and physical, sexual, and psychological abuse,” reads the proposed class action.

Beleaguered parents of young children with diabetes ask province for help in schools

Parents of children in elementary school with Type 1 diabetes pleaded for help from the province Tuesday at the legislature.

Two mothers — one who has to leave her job at lunch, the other who had to quit her job altogether — in order to get to their children’s schools in time to make insulin-pump adjustments say other provinces, including B.C. and Nova Scotia, have trained school staff to help.

“It’s heartbreaking to have to gauge whether or not I can maintain my livelihood or my child’s health care,” said Christy Peterson, whose five-year-old daughter Lillian is on an insulin pump.

The pumps support better blood-glucose management, help reduce the risk of long-term diabetes complications and their use results in fewer insulin injections.

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.

One of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre’s last survivors, Viola Ford Fletcher, dies at age 111

DALLAS (AP) — Viola Ford Fletcher, who as one of the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Oklahoma spent her later years seeking justice for the deadly attack by a white mob on the thriving Black community where she lived as a child, has died. She was 111.

Her grandson Ike Howard said Monday that she died surrounded by family at a Tulsa hospital. Sustained by a strong faith, she raised three children, worked as a welder in a shipyard during World War II and spent decades caring for families as a housekeeper.

Tulsa was mourning her loss, said Mayor Monroe Nichols, the first Black leader of Oklahoma’s second-largest city. “Mother Fletcher endured more than anyone should, yet she spent her life lighting a path forward with purpose.”

She was 7 years old when the two-day attack began on Tulsa’s Greenwood district on May 31, 1921, after a local newspaper published a sensationalized report about a Black man accused of assaulting a white woman. As a white mob grew outside the courthouse, Black Tulsans with guns who hoped to prevent the man’s lynching began showing up. White residents responded with overwhelming force. Hundreds of people were killed and homes were burned and looted, leaving over 30 city blocks decimated in the prosperous community known as Black Wall Street.

First Nations sue over oil-rich land

A pair of First Nations are suing the provincial and federal governments, claiming land and mineral rights to a swath of land in southwestern Manitoba that generates more than $1.3 billion annually from oil and gas production.

Canupawakpa Dakota First Nation and Dakota Tipi First Nation filed a statement of claim in Court of King’s Bench on Thursday calling for a declaration of title and subsurface rights over Manitoba’s portion of the Williston Basin.

The oil-rich basin stretches from southwestern Manitoba into southern Saskatchewan and over the U.S. border. The Manitoba portion hosts at least 14 identified oil fields and is home to all the current oil production in the province, the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs are claiming rights over the entirety of the basin in Manitoba, including the “right to economically participate in the extraction, development and production of subsurface minerals.”

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.

Former judge in Ukraine sacrifices career to be reunited with family in Winnipeg

Viktor Bratasyuk was walking the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court as part of an international judicial fellowship last fall. Today, the longtime Ukrainian judge is working part time at a beer vendor in St. Vital.

Senators amend legislation to make it easier to pass on First Nations status

OTTAWA - Senators have passed sweeping amendments to a bill that would simplify the transfer of First Nations status between generations, rejecting the federal government's advice to limit its scope.

Bill S-2, introduced in the Senate with support by the Liberal government, was drafted to eliminate some gender inequities in the Indian Act and allow some 6,000 people to become eligible for First Nations status.

Some senators and Indigenous community leaders said the bill didn't go far enough.

On Tuesday, senators changed the legislation to eliminate what is known as the "second-generation cutoff," opting instead for a one-parent rule that would allow First Nations status to be transferred to a child if one of their parents is enrolled.

Greenwashing rules to be scaled back, but scope of change remains unclear

TORONTO - Canada's greenwashing rules are being scaled back, but it remains to be seen what the changes mean for businesses wanting to talk about their environmental record.

In the federal budget released last week, the government said it plans to remove parts of the greenwashing laws, passed in June last year, that are part of the Competition Act.

"These “greenwashing” provisions are creating investment uncertainty and having the opposite of the desired effect with some parties slowing or reversing efforts to protect the environment," the government said in the budget.

Specifically, the government says it plans to remove the rule that business environmental claims have to be backed up by internationally recognized methodology, as well as removing the option for third parties such as environmental groups to be able to challenge claims.

Probe flags troubles in literacy education

Human rights investigators have found that parents of struggling readers across Manitoba are being forced to take on “a full-time job” of advocacy so their children can become literate in local public schools.

The Manitoba Human Rights Commission released the long-awaited findings of its probe into literacy 101 education on Thursday — the penultimate day of Dyslexia Awareness Month 2025.

The 70-page document reveals that many schools are not using evidence-based methods to teach reading and lengthy wait times for clinical assessments are affecting overall literacy rates.

The results are unsurprising for Laura Jones, a mother who volunteered at the launch event organized in partnership with Dyslexia Canada.

Decades-long fight to repeal discriminatory second-generation cut-off rekindled on Parliament Hill

First Nations women who’ve spent a lifetime fighting for the right to belong in their own communities have been again travelling to Parliament Hill this fall, repeating their calls for change and their wish: for their children and grandchildren not to be excluded as they were.

Winnipeg MP’s private member’s bill would make residential school denialism a crime

Manitoba New Democrat MP Leah Gazan reintroduced a private member’s bill Friday that would criminalize residential school denialism, saying “real action” is needed to combat rising anti-Indigenous hate.

Bill C-254, if passed, would amend the Criminal Code to include the promotion of hatred against Indigenous Peoples by “condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system.”

“We cannot ignore the obvious, that residential school denialism is simply an act of inciting hate against Indigenous people,” Gazan, the MP for Winnipeg Centre, said in a news release.

“Members of Parliament must act immediately to uphold their safety, and I urge all my parliamentary colleagues to protect survivors and families by supporting this bill.”

Ottawa orders unprecedented posthumous appeal of fourth Indigenous man’s conviction in 1973 slaying

Canada’s justice minister ordered a new appeal Monday of a Manitoba First Nations man’s 1974 manslaughter conviction — a decision that was unprecedented because it came 14 years after his death.

Another subdivision, another city problem

So, here we go again folks. We just get the protection of the Lemay Forest done and dusted and bingo, there’s another proposed subdivision for 23 homes on two-acre flood plain lots right across the Red River from the Lemay on the old Daman Farm site.

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.

Drunk driver who killed woman in 2022 hit-and-run denied parole

The man who killed a 24-year-old woman while driving drunk in a high-speed hit-and-run collision in Transcona in 2022 was denied parole Wednesday.

In November 2023, Tyler Scott Goodman was sentenced to seven years in prison — six for impaired driving causing death and one for leaving the scene — for the collision that killed Jordyn Reimer on May 1, 2022, sparking outrage from loved ones who argued the sentence was too low.

The Wednesday hearing, at Stony Mountain prison, was to assess whether Goodman could be deemed a manageable risk if granted day or full parole.

Parole Board of Canada member Lesley Monkman said he wasn’t ready for either.

Mayor, inner circle want assaults on firefighters, paramedics added to Criminal Code

Physical assaults and threats against Winnipeg firefighters and paramedics have become a regular occurrence on the job, prompting a push within city hall for changes to Canada’s Criminal Code.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said 58 assaults or threats were reported by the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service halfway through 2025 — a figure that one union says is likely underreported by a large margin.

“When you’ve got firefighters, firefighter paramedics and paramedics attending a call to try to help someone, they shouldn’t be assaulted,” Gillingham told reporters. “When they are, there’s got to be consequences for individuals who assault our front-line workers.”

At a meeting Tuesday, city hall’s executive policy committee unanimously endorsed a motion, introduced by the mayor, that calls on Ottawa to amend the Criminal Code to make assaults against firefighters and paramedics a distinct offence, and increase penalties for aggravated assaults against first responders.