OpenAI faces 30 new lawsuits from witnesses to mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

VANCOUVER - Artificial intelligence company OpenAI and founder Sam Altman are facing 30 new lawsuits from witnesses to the deadly mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., with plaintiffs including a teacher who described trying to protect pupils from the shooter, and a teenage student who recalled his classmates arming themselves "with kitchen knives and heavy tools."

"My colleagues and I are haunted by the memory of shielding children with our own bodies as our ears rang from the sound of continual gunshots and high-pitched screams. An entire generation of young lives, gone in a second," teacher Deidre Rushlow said in a statement provided by Vancouver-based law firm Rice Parson Leoni and Elliott.

"And for what? So OpenAI could get to an IPO? Were the lives of my students and educational assistant just the cost of doing business?"

The lawsuits were to be filed Wednesday in California on behalf of "injured and traumatized students and educators" at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in the northern British Columbia community, the law firm said. Six of the eight victims who died in the shootings were killed at the school.

Doctor pays $500K to revamp courtyard at care home where he works

Fifty years after Dr. Pravinsagar Mehta began caring for residents at Actionmarguerite, a courtyard he had long watched deteriorate is getting a new life after he and his wife committed $500,000 to its redevelopment and long-term maintenance.

Ottawa funds sentencing program for northern Manitoba offenders

The federal government has put up $5 million for a Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak project to provide culturally connected sentencing options for First Nations offenders in northern Manitoba.

A look at major lawsuits against Meta and other social media companies over harms to kids

A settlement announced Wednesday between Meta and dozens of states resolves one of its biggest legal fights, but the social media giant is still facing litigation elsewhere over its products' effects on young people's mental health.

The deal cut short a landmark trial in federal court in Oakland, California, where the Instagram and Facebook parent company was fighting claims that it deliberately designed features that get children addicted. The agreement calls for Meta to pay out up to $18 billion and make a changes to how their platforms are operated, with new guardrails for kid safety.

It is one of many courtrooms around the country where Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube have been defending themselves against allegations their platforms have negatively impacted children’s mental health or otherwise hurt them.

Here is a look at some of the biggest cases against social media companies.

Smart Suite lets families of children with disabilities learn how adaptive design, tech can improve their lives

The first thing Zoe Versteeg did after rolling into the living room was to change the hue-lighting colour to match the shade of her lavender glasses. The smile that spread across her face was nearly as bright as the lights in the room.

“It’s just joy, immediate joy when she sees something happening. She’s like, ‘I control that, I got to do that,’” Elsien Versteeg, Zoe’s mother, said. “Her being able to make those decisions on her own, she can just do it herself now.”

Zoe, who is 13 and non-verbal, uses eye-gaze technology to communicate and control both her wheelchair and an array of smart devices. Versteeg and Zoe were at the official opening of the Rehabilitation Centre for Children’s new Smart Suite on Aug. 26, where the team behind the project was demonstrating the breadth of adaptive design and technologies available locally for families of children with disabilities to provide them with greater independence.

The Versteegs use many of the devices in their own home near New Bothwell.

Meta reaches landmark $18 billion settlement with states in trial over teen social media addiction

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Meta agreed Wednesday to pay up to $18 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms as part of a landmark legal settlement that ended a trial over teen social media addiction and settled claims filed by nearly every state.

The settlement resolved a pivotal case years in the making that sought to hold the tech giant accountable for the role its platforms played in undermining children’s mental health. The effort targeted features designed to hook young people’s attention.

The agreement “institutes real change, real transparency, real protections for children and teens across the country,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said.

If approved by the court, the deal will stop an avalanche of litigation by states against Meta, although the company still faces lawsuits from individuals and school districts throughout the U.S. For the states, the settlement delivers money for mental-health programs for kids, including after-school or summer activities and digital literacy counselors.

City emergency crews to administer drug that stops opioid withdrawal symptoms

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews will soon give out a medication that stops withdrawal symptoms after someone is treated for an opioid overdose.

Emergency workers will be administering a drug called buprenorphine, after Health Canada granted WFPS permission to use the controlled substance.

“Buprenorphine is a medication that offers people who are in active addiction — so those people who have received naloxone as a result of an overdose and those that are experiencing significant and, at times, dangerous withdrawal symptoms — just a bit of a reprieve … (It) reduces cravings and prevents those immediate withdrawal symptoms, which allows more time to connect those patients to further care,” said Michelle Long, WFPS assistant chief of paramedic operations.

The treatment option is in response to a persistently high number of WFPS opioid calls.

Delirium is often missed by health providers. Could an AI risk predictor help?

TORONTO - Bruce MacLeod never thought he would forget his own birthday.

But a couple days after a heart valve replacement in February 2025, he did.

"It was strange. It was just out of reach, like, if I reached a little further, I could have pulled those memories back, but I was unsuccessful at the time," MacLeod, 65, said.

His partner, Harry Ennis, recalls coming into the hospital room one day to find MacLeod had ripped off his heart monitor, and his belongings were packed up to leave.

What to know about postpartum psychosis, which can affect a new mom’s sense of reality

A key question in a Massachusetts murder trial is whether postpartum psychosis drove a mother to kill her three children.

On Monday, a jury heard opening statements in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital. Both sides agree she strangled her children aged 5 and younger in 2023. But they disagree over whether she should be held criminally responsible.

Clancy and her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, filed lawsuits accusing her medical providers of failing to properly diagnose and treat her condition.

Here’s what to know about the disorder.

Montreal shooting leads to national security investigation on ideological violence

MONTREAL - A specialized national security unit within the RCMP has opened an investigation into ideologically motivated violent extremism after Monday's midday shooting in Montreal that left three people dead, including a police officer and a bystander.

In an email Thursday, the RCMP said branches of its Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Eastern Canada and in the northwest region are working together on a case that is separate from the murder investigation led by Quebec provincial police.

These RCMP enforcement teams target terrorist groups or people who threaten national security. “As this is an ongoing investigation, for now we do not have any more information to share,” RCMP Const. Marie-Pierre Guertin said.

While neither the RCMP nor Quebec's provincial police have publicly released details about the suspected motive behind Monday's shooting, The Canadian Press has reviewed a manifesto written by the alleged gunman that expresses hatred toward women and calls for violence.

Websites suggest conspiracies fed accused Montreal gunman’s ‘buffet extremism’

Online activity suggests accused Montreal shooter Seth Hatfield watched videos about weapons, the outdoors and a tangle of conspiracy theories and grievances.

However, experts warn against drawing conclusions about the gunman. They also urge people to stop sharing online images of Monday's shooting outside a Montreal hotel.

Police said two officers were shot — Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, was killed along with a bystander, Michel Mizrahi, 68, and the shooter died in the crossfire.

The coroner identified the dead suspect as 25-year-old Seth Hatfield from Lethbridge, Alta.

South African prisons open art galleries to showcase inmates’ work

When most people think of prison, they picture steel bars, locked gates and lost freedom. But at a correctional facility in Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, visitors are greeted by something unexpected: an art gallery.

Nova Scotia failing to properly oversee addictions, mental health care, says auditor

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia's auditor general says the Office of Addictions and Mental Health has failed to provide effective oversight of mental health and addiction services and its staff were not aware of all provincially funded centres offering care.

In response to a rise in mental health needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government created the office with a dedicated minister in 2021. Five years later, auditor general Kim Adair said the office has insufficient oversight and responsibility for mental health and addiction services — despite its role in setting policy direction and care standards.

"We're concerned that five years in, some of these fundamental aspects which we would expect to be in place by now are not there," Adair told reporters Tuesday.

The audit found the province has spent close to $1 billion on mental health addiction services over the past three years; however, Adair found that the office did not set up standards for access to services to ensure consistent and equitable mental health and addictions care.

Philippines temporarily blocks gaming app used by suspect in deadly school shooting

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine authorities said Tuesday they will temporarily block an online gaming app that one of two students blamed for a deadly school shooting has avidly used, to assess whether it played a role in fostering such violence.

Three students were killed and 20 others were wounded when the two suspects, aged 14 and 15 and armed with a handgun each, opened fire Monday at the San Jose National High School in central Tacloban city.

The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center said its decision to block Gorebox was prompted by an ongoing police investigation which showed that one suspect was an avid user of the app, adding that this will allow authorities to determine “whether the platform played any role in the actions of the suspects.”

The decision would be enforced starting Tuesday, undersecretary Aboy Paraiso of the cybercrime center said in a statement.

Art show features paintings created as therapy

Having watched Bob Ross’s painting lessons on TV for years, Maxine Utsunomiya finally decided to take a lesson herself.

Now, after signing up for Art in the Garden — a painting workshop at Victoria Hospital for patients in the mental health services program — she’s one of 15 people whose work is being featured in an exhibit at Studio Central in Portage Place.

The annual art program, now in its fifth year, is held at the hospital’s Will and Mavis Tishinski Tranquility Trail.

“It’s very relaxing, it’s very stimulating and I really enjoyed this,” said Utsunomiya, 69.

AI safety advocates say bill a good ‘first step’ on regulation, but more needed

The federal government’s proposed online safety legislation is a good start on regulating artificial intelligence chatbots — but more work will be needed to protect Canadians from their potential harms, a pair of advocates say.

Bill C-34, introduced earlier this month in the House of Commons, would regulate the companies behind AI chatbots by imposing on them a duty to act “responsibly.”

It includes measures to lower the risk of chatbots communicating harmful content and would put in place crisis intervention protocols for cases involving self-harm, suicide or violence.

Wyatt Tessari L’Allié, founder of Artificial Intelligence Governance and Safety Canada, said the bill’s effectiveness depends on how the details are worked out.

One of Canada’s most prominent MAID providers reflects on divisive decade

TORONTO - Dr. Ellen Wiebe has never been one to shy away from risk.

It started with the very first patient she provided with a medically assisted death: Hanne Schafer, a 66-year-old Calgary psychologist diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis three months before retiring in 2013.

MAID was three years away from legalization, but Schafer was quickly losing her ability to talk, walk, eat and drink and wanted the procedure as soon as she could get it. On Feb. 29, 2016, a judge approved her request, more than three months before MAID would become legal on June 17.

The next hurdle was finding a doctor prepared to do it, recalls Schafer’s husband Daniel Laurin. He credits Wiebe with helping his late wife when no one else would: "It was a very humane thing to do.”

Committee majority recommends against MAID for mental illness, four senators object

OTTAWA - A parliamentary committee is calling on the federal government to indefinitely exclude people with mental illness from becoming eligible for medical assistance in dying, after a process that some of the committee's members decried as flawed and biased.

Conservative and Liberal members of Parliament on the committee co-signed that single recommendation in a report Wednesday that included a number of dissenting opinions.

People with a mental illness as their sole underlying condition are set to become eligible to apply for medical assistance in dying, or MAID, next March.

The committee of MPs and senators was tasked with studying whether the country is ready for that to happen.

Justice minister says he will review MAID committee testimony before making decision

OTTAWA - Justice Minister Sean Fraser says he will take time over the summer to review the work of a committee tasked with determining whether Canada is ready to allow people with mental illness access to medically assisted dying.

Committee co-chair Marcus Powlowski said last week the report would be presented to Parliament on Wednesday to ensure it's in the government's hands before the House of Commons takes its summer break.

Fraser said Tuesday he will consider more than the committee's conclusions and recommendations.

"Importantly to me, I'm also going to be reviewing the witness testimony upon which those recommendations were based," he said.