Think you can beat the game? Don’t bet on it

Trying to watch sports on television these days means accepting a basic and deeply annoying reality: the game itself is no longer the main event.

No, the main event is the endless parade of ads for gambling apps marching across every commercial break, crammed into every spare inch of space not occupied by actual hockey players.

And man, are these ads terrible. Not morally — well, yes, morally too — but we’ll come back to that. I mean esthetically. These things are obnoxious.

If you’ve watched any amount of hockey lately, you know the drill: betting on games can turn you into a legend, a hero, the life of the party.

Gov. Gen. Simon launches mental health project for North, Indigenous communities

OTTAWA - Outgoing Gov. Gen. Mary Simon has launched a project to fund community-based mental health services in Northern and Indigenous communities.

The legacy project will be run with support from the Rideau Hall Foundation.

It is called Ajuinnata, an Inuktitut word that means "never give up." The project will begin in Inuit Nunangat.

Simon launched a mental health learning and listening tour in 2024 as one of her priorities in the viceregal office. She said the people she met made it clear the shortage of stable services in the North is an acute problem.

Gamification and memes lure young people to sports wagering apps, prediction markets

When Rory McIlroy won the Masters for the second year in a row, Kalshi shared a photo of him on Instagram with the words, “Wait he’s goated.” When a video of NBA player Damian Lillard recovering from an injury circulated online, Kalshi’s main competitor Polymarket posted, “The league is cooked.”

If you don’t know what either of those phrases mean, it's because you may not be the target audience.

The posts and hundreds of others like it are exposing younger people to prediction market platforms, where users can put money on the line for the outcomes of real-world events — or absurd ones like when the U.S. will confirm that aliens exist or whether Jesus Christ will return before 2027.

Once on the platforms, companies keep users hooked with what they market as low-stakes, casual opportunities to make an easy buck, creating an environment that some say feels more like a game and less like a risky financial transaction with potentially harmful consequences. Indeed, recent academic research looking at 588 million trades on Polymarket found that profits were concentrated to just a very small group of top traders while the majority of users — 69% — lost money.

The Minneapolis immigration crackdown ended months ago. For these little kids, trauma remains

COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) — The little girl approached the therapy dog outside the school library, reaching out to touch her fluffy blond coat. Social worker Nicole Herje leaned in.

"How does it feel when you pet Sage?” Herje said.

“I like it," the girl said. “In Ecuador, I had a dog.”

A few months earlier, this girl and many of her classmates at Valley View Elementary were staying off the streets to avoid the immigration officers flooding their suburban Minneapolis community. Attendance plummeted as families kept their kids from school during the Trump administration’s enforcement surge.

Manitobans prefer later sunsets in time-change debate: poll

A new public opinion poll suggests year-round daylight time is the leading choice among Manitobans, as the provincial government considers ditching twice-annual clock changes.

The survey by Winnipeg-based Prairie Research Associates found roughly three in four Manitobans support an end to seasonal time changes, a move that would lead to the permanent use of standard or daylight time.

“There is a large group of people who say, ‘I don’t care what the change is as long as there is no (seasonal time) change.’ That group was larger than I expected,” PRA partner Nicholas Borodenko said about the survey results.

“The fact that more people are leaning toward wanting to have more summer daylight in the evening was expected.”

Winnipeg pair look to launch EyeMirage device for sale in Canada in fall, with eyes to follow on international markets

By winter, a pair of Winnipeg entrepreneurs aim to have portable vision and concussion-screening products circulating Canada.

“Designing a device that is portable, affordable and AI-based and smartphone-based is a puzzle,” Dr. Behzad Mansouri said, a prototype of the device on the desk in front of him at the Brain, Vision and Concussion Clinic off St. Anne’s Road on Monday.

He’s a neuro-ophthalmologist at the clinic. He’s also the co-founder of Neuroptek, the medical technology company behind headsets meant to help diagnose concussions and other vision and neurological injuries and disorders.

The products look like virtual reality headsets. Instead of games, users take visual tests they’d find at a doctor’s office. They might try to read letters or identify colours.

Manitoba doctors support provincial government’s proposed social media ban

WINNIPEG - The negative effects social media has on children and youth's mental and physical health is outweighing other health concerns like substance use and injuries prompting some Manitoba doctors to support a ban on these sites, a new report has found.

Doctors Manitoba, the organization representing roughly 5,000 physicians and students in the province, surveyed its members and found that social media and excessive screen time pose significant risks to the mental health, sleep and robust development in children and youth.

Of the 242 physicians who completed the survey, 90 per cent supported a ban on social media sites and artificial intelligence chatbots for children.

"The findings are quite clear. Doctors believe social media, screen time and chat bots are among the top risks to children's health and well-being, ranking higher than even smoking, drinking, injuries and sedentary lifestyles," Dr. Alon Altman, president of Doctors Manitoba, told reporters on Monday.

Music as therapy — singing through tears

It’s Sunday and I arrive in the middle of hymn sing. Mom and her roommate are dozing on the couch in the lobby as the songs swell around them, the recorded music supplemented by a choir of earnest voices.

The diminutive lady with the horn-rimmed glasses who had vigorously belted out Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ at last week’s singalong is more subdued today, her voice soft and plaintive during Why Me Lord?

Indeed, there is an air of sadness to this gathering, the musical selections steeped in nostalgia. It feels more like group therapy than joyful noise.

But then the residents here are grieving. They have lost two of their number in recent weeks, both wonderful women whose company I enjoyed on many previous visits, and today’s music session has been dedicated to their memories.

Health advice is all over social media. Here’s how to vet claims

Health and wellness advice is available in abundance on social media — from trendy to informative to straight-up disinformation — and you're far from alone in seeing it.

A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults — and around half of those under 50 — get health information from social media or podcasts.

Researchers also looked at the social media profiles of 6,828 health and wellness influencers with at least 100,000 followers. Only about 4 in 10 list a background as a health professional. About one-third called themselves coaches, about 3 in 10 described themselves as entrepreneurs and about 1 in 10 cited their own life experience, like being a parent.

Despite the wide range of expertise, about half of people who get health and wellness information from influencers said the influencers help them better understand their own health, while about one-third said it hasn't made much difference. About 1 in 10 said it made them more confused.

More time at work is not always more productive work

Canada’s productivity conversation has increasingly focused on a simple but important measure: output per hour worked. In other words, what are we actually producing for the time we are putting in?

Manitoba education minister says social media ban could start in schools

WINNIPEG - Manitoba could turn to classrooms as the first place to ban children from using social media and artificial intelligence chatbots, and one young advocate is urging the province to work with those it's aiming to protect.

Tracy Schmidt, the province's education minister, says Manitobans can expect to see the ban's first phase rolled out in schools, likening it to when the government first banned cellphones in classrooms in 2024.

"This is very early days. A step like this is going to certainly take legislative and regulatory processes," Schmidt said at an unrelated event Monday.

"But I know that something we're talking about right away is how we can roll this out in schools as soon as possible."

Former chief psychiatrist legally challenges Manitoba’s detox detention laws

Manitoba’s former chief psychiatrist is challenging the constitutionality of a controversial law allowing the province to incarcerate intoxicated people for up to 72 hours, claiming that it will harm those suffering from mental illness or disabilities.

Dr. Jim Simm, an outspoken critic of the Protective Detention and Care of Intoxicated Persons Act, said in an exclusive interview on Sunday that he is seeking leave from the Court of King’s Bench to challenge the law violates provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“We’re talking about human beings who are suffering,” Simm said. “They may be acting badly but to be putting them in solitary confinement — it’s just wrong.”

As it stands now, the legislation allows someone who appears intoxicated to be held for 24 hours at a “detention location,” and then held for up to 72 additional hours at a “preventative care centre.”

Supervised drug consumption site will be grounded in culture, compassion: facility’s leader

Winnipeg’s first supervised consumption site is being designed as a culturally grounded health space where people struggling with addiction will be met with familiarity, dignity and support from the moment they enter.

Why claims of sentience can’t guide black bear policy

The modern debate over sustainable-use bear hunting often hinges on a few claims including bears are sentient, therefore humans have no moral right to hunt them.

It’s a powerful emotional argument, but it collapses under scientific scrutiny and ecological reality. Sentience is real. Bears and other animals do feel.

But the leap from “animals feel” to “humans must never hunt” is not supported by biology, ethics or conservation science. If we want wildlife policy that protects species and ecosystems, we need to separate what sentience is from what animal rights activists want it to mean.

In scientific terms, sentience refers to the capacity to feel or perceive, not the ability to make moral judgments.

A small but growing movement wants you to put down your phone. But first read this

NEW YORK (AP) — More than a dozen millennials gathered in a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn and placed their phones in a metal colander before two hours of reading, drawing and conversation — anything but staring at screens.

A similar scene played out a few miles away, in an early 20th-century cardboard box factory turned high-end office space. Nearly 20 people in their 30s stared at their cellphones for a few minutes. Then they set them down and looked at their bared palms for a while. Then those of their neighbors.

The exercise was meant to drive home the importance of paying attention to real life, not the gleaming little screens that have taken over our world.

A ‘revolution’ against devices

‘Furry face to greet them:’ How facility dogs help victims navigate Manitoba’s court system

WINNIPEG - Tucked in a quiet corner on the fourth floor of Winnipeg's law courts building is a spacious room filled with vibrant toys, children's books and leather couches.

It’s a stark contrast to the cold marble and ornate, wooden fixtures that make up the rest of the building.

It's where four-legged Glossy spends a lot of her working days comforting children going through the judicial system.

The five-year-old Labrador retriever with milk chocolate-coloured eyes and a shiny black coat to match her name, is one of two accredited facility dogs that support victims of crime or their families by lending a sympathetic paw.

Liberals set to debate age restrictions for social media

MONTREAL - Liberal party members will soon grapple with the question of whether children and young teens should be barred from accessing social media accounts for platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and YouTube.

The policy resolution is expected to hit the floor at the Liberal party policy convention in Montreal for debate and a vote on Saturday.

Jonathan Nuss, the head of the Outremont Liberal riding association, is one of the main proponents of a resolution calling on the party to ensure social media platforms limit user accounts to Canadians aged 16 and older.

The Montreal lawyer and father of two young children said he wants this resolution to kick-start a national debate on addictive technologies and the harmful effects social media can have on young children — a debate that's already happening among parents across the country.

West Broadway drop-in offers supports, programs, safety for people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder

West Broadway has become home to the first drop-in centre in the city to support people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

First Nations chiefs demand apology after PM said he could ‘outlast’ protester

OTTAWA - Two First Nations chiefs are calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to apologize for saying he could "outlast" a First Nations woman who was protesting over mercury poisoning in her community.

Chrissy Isaacs, a Grassy Narrows woman suffering from mercury poisoning, was in Toronto on Monday to demand compensation from the provincial government for mercury contamination.

The Dryden Paper Mill released thousands of kilograms of mercury into Grassy Narrows' river system from the 1960s to the 1970s. It's widely considered to be one of the country's worst environmental disasters and community members are still dealing with the fallout today.

Isaacs and a group of community members and their supporters attended a news conference Carney held on Monday with Ontario Premier Doug Ford to announce new funding for housing. She and the other protesters could be heard chanting and shouting in the background about the mercury contamination.

Manitobans will continue to spring forward, fall back

Premier Wab Kinew has rejected the idea Manitoba would make daylight time permanent.

British Columbia has announced it will adopt year-round daylight time. The one-hour time change this Sunday — a shift forward — will be the last for most people in that province.

“Not right now,” Kinew said after being asked whether Manitoba would follow suit.

“Everybody’s got an opinion on it, but we only have so many hours in a day, and we’re going to spend those hours on health care and lowering your cost of living.”

Trial against Meta in New Mexico highlights video depositions by top executives

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Prosecutors began presenting never-before-seen video depositions of Meta executives at a trial in New Mexico on Tuesday to bolster accusations that the social media conglomerate failed to disclose what it knows about harmful effects to children on its platforms, including Instagram.

New Mexico prosecutors are billing depositions from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram leader Adam Mosseri as centerpieces of the state's case against Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Prosecutors have accused Meta of violating state consumer protection laws.

Prosecutors say the dangers of addiction to social media as well as child sexual exploitation on Meta's platforms weren’t properly addressed or disclosed by the company.

Meta attorney Kevin Huff pushed back on those assertions during opening statements on Feb. 9, highlighting efforts to weed out harmful content from its platforms while warning users that some content still gets through its safety net. He said Meta discloses the risks.

End the ban: France backs return of intellectually disabled athletes to Winter Paralympics

LANS-EN-VERCORS, France (AP) — On a well-groomed, snow-covered slope in the Montagnes de Lans ski area near the French city of Grenoble, a group of Alpine skiers take aggressive lines through the gates. Their trajectories are precise, the tempo is fast and the technique polished.

Among this competition squad are world champions — some with multiple medals to their names.

Yet none will line up in the starting gates at the Milan Cortina Paralympic Games, where more than 650 athletes will compete in 79 medal events from March 6.

The reason? They have cognitive disabilities and are not eligible to compete.