Research Methods

Please review each article prior to use: grade-level applicability and curricular alignment might not be obvious from the headline alone.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth, Sherry Gott.

Province hunting for web-based system to better assess and help youth with mental-health, addiction issues

Carol Sanders 3 minute read Preview

Province hunting for web-based system to better assess and help youth with mental-health, addiction issues

Carol Sanders 3 minute read Friday, Jan. 2, 2026

As a drug crisis rages in Manitoba, the province is looking for a better web-based mental-health and addictions assessment tool for youth to help connect them to the services they need.

Shared Health said it’s seeking an evidence-based assessment system that focuses on mental health and substance use challenges in youth. On Monday, it posted on the public-sector tendering site MERX that it’s looking for systems and tools that are secure and ready to go.

A spokesperson for Shared Health said the authority is trying to determine whether there are any stronger screening tools and digital platforms than what is currently in use. The Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth has sounded the alarm over substance use among children and youth, and the need for the province to do more and better.

Shared Health currently has a screening tool and digital platform — the Child Behavior Checklist and the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA-Web), the spokesperson said.

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Friday, Jan. 2, 2026
Bat boy appeared in the supermarket tabloid Weekly World News in the early 1990s.

Fewer than one in five Manitobans are sure they know fabricated online content when they see it: survey

Ben Waldman 5 minute read Preview

Fewer than one in five Manitobans are sure they know fabricated online content when they see it: survey

Ben Waldman 5 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026

When Weekly World News stories about a half-boy, half-bat lined supermarket checkout lanes in the 1990s, most consumers — including Probe Research partner Curtis Brown — could readily, easily and confidently identify the eye-grabbing tabloid reports as false.

“When it comes to (content generated by) AI, people have a bit less confidence,” says Brown. “Sometimes it’s very obviously so-called AI slop — like a historical figure talking about something contemporary. The last couple of months I’ve seen a lot of videos of JFK talking about what a fool his nephew is.”

Even if a quick Google search to note RFK Jr. was nine when his uncle was assassinated in 1963 — marking such videos as debris in an artificial intelligence mudslide — new media literacy polling conducted by Probe for the Free Press reveals that only 18 per cent of Manitobans feel very confident that they can identify whether video footage is “fake or AI-generated.”

Of the 1,000 Manitobans randomly surveyed by Probe between Nov. 25 and Dec. 10, 13 per cent believed that they’d personally shared video, images or text on social media that they didn’t realize was fake.

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Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026
PHIL HOSSACK / FREE PRESS FILES A psychologist recruited to care for sick youths filed a lawsuit this week against Shared Health and the University of Manitoba in Court of King’s Bench.

Psychologist sues Shared Health, U of M

Tyler Searle 5 minute read Preview

Psychologist sues Shared Health, U of M

Tyler Searle 5 minute read Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024

A psychologist recruited to care for sick youths claims she was “pressured to engage in misconduct and other violations of professional standards” and then fired without cause when she complained to the provincial regulator.

The allegations are detailed in a lawsuit filed this week against Shared Health and the University of Manitoba in Court of King’s Bench.

According to the lawsuit, Dr. Michelle Keiski lodged a complaint with the Psychological Association of Manitoba in September 2022 to raise the alarm over issues inside the Max Rady College of Medicine, including the misreporting of studies and data, and staff providing services they are not qualified to deliver.

Keiski, a clinical psychologist, was placed on administrative leave one month after filing the complaint and later terminated without cause, the lawsuit said.

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Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024
PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES A University of Manitoba nursing student was suspended for the rest of the school year after making a series of social media posts condemning Israel’s actions in its conflict with Palestine.

U of M expands clinical psychology program to address Manitoba shortage

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Preview

U of M expands clinical psychology program to address Manitoba shortage

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024

The University of Manitoba is expanding its clinical psychology program this fall in an effort to boost the number practising in the province, where the per capita rate is among the lowest in Canada.

The number of seats in the U of M’s masters and doctoral clinical psychology program has been increased to 12 for September, up from eight in previous years, with a plan to expand to 16 seats next fall.

“It’s going to mean better access to psychological care for Manitobans. It doesn’t seem like a big number … but really, we’re doubling our program,” said Kristin Reynolds, associate professor and clinical training director in the U of M’s psychology department.

“Where we now have 50 students in the program, from the first year of the masters to more senior years in doctoral studies, in the years to come, we’ll have more like 100.”

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Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024