Increase in sextortion cases prompts call for legislation to combat predators

The spike in online sextortion cases in Winnipeg has alarmed police and augmented advocates’ calls for Canada to begin regulating social media platforms to help protect children from predators.

Little pictures, big ears, and bad examples

One of the pillars of a thriving democratic society is exemplified through the civil conduct of our elected political leaders. The ethos of honesty, humility, and empathy are becoming increasingly relinquished in lieu of posturing public vitriol and moral indifference.

Don’t like a columnist’s opinion? Los Angeles Times offers an AI-generated opposing viewpoint

In a colorful commentary for the Los Angeles Times, Matt K. Lewis argued that callousness is a central feature of the second Trump administration, particularly its policies of deportation and bureaucratic cutbacks. “Once you normalize cruelty,” Lewis concluded in the piece, “the hammer eventually swings for everyone. Even the ones who thought they were swinging it.”

Lewis' word wasn't the last, however. As they have with opinion pieces the past several weeks, Times online readers had the option to click on a button labeled “Insights,” which judged the column politically as “center-left.” Then it offers an AI-generated synopsis — a CliffsNotes version of the column — and a similarly-produced opposing viewpoint.

One dissenting argument reads: “Restricting birthright citizenship and refugee admissions is framed as correcting alleged exploitation of immigration loopholes, with proponents arguing these steps protect American workers and resources.”

The feature symbolizes changes to opinion coverage ordered over the past six months by Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who's said he wants the famously liberal opinion pages to reflect different points of view. Critics accuse him of trying to curry favor with President Donald Trump.

Global extremism, as close as your keyboard

An arrest in Winnipeg has provided yet another reminder of just how much extremist attitudes have spread across the world.

Conservative MPs beat Liberals, NDP on online engagement, study finds

OTTAWA - A new study from McGill University says Conservative MPs far outpace their Liberal and NDP counterparts in online engagement, partly due to the their voices being amplified on X.

The report from McGill’s Media Ecosystem Observatory found in 2024, online posts from federal Conservative MPs garnered 61 per cent more engagement — likes, shares and comments — than those from Liberal and NDP MPs combined.

It found that engagement with Conservative politicians on X has increased 52 per cent since Elon Musk, a key ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, took over the platform previously known as Twitter in 2022.

The report looked at online posts from all members of Parliament on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and TikTok between January 2022 and November 2024.

Psychologist sues Shared Health, U of M

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.

U of M expands clinical psychology program to address Manitoba shortage

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.”

Classrooms don’t have to be smartphone-free zones, tech-fluent educators tell province

A group of tech-savvy teachers is calling on the province to create guidelines on cellphone use in schools and offering to help get it done.

The Manitoba Association of Education Technology Leaders has taken a firm stance against introducing a sweeping ban of personal wireless devices in kindergarten-to-Grade 12 buildings.

Manitoba Education has no policy in place. School divisions create their own appropriate use policies, while most buildings allow teachers to make rules for their own classrooms.

Tuxedo’s Laidlaw School, Collège Béliveau in Windsor Park and West Kildonan Collegiate are among Winnipeg facilities that have imposed stricter measures this year.

As elites arrive in Davos, conspiracy theories thrive online

NEW YORK (AP) — When some of the world’s wealthiest and most influential figures gathered at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting last year, sessions on climate change drew high-level discussions on topics such as carbon financing and sustainable food systems.

But an entirely different narrative played out on the internet, where social media users claimed leaders wanted to force the population to eat insects instead of meat in the name of saving the environment.

The annual event in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos, which opens Monday, has increasingly become a target of bizarre claims from a growing chorus of commentators who believe the forum involves a group of elites manipulating global events for their own benefit. Experts say what was once a conspiracy theory found in the internet’s underbelly has now hit the mainstream.

“This isn’t a conspiracy that is playing out on the extreme fringes,” said Alex Friedfeld, a researcher with the Anti-Defamation League who studies anti-government extremism. “We’re seeing it on mainstream social media platforms being shared by regular Americans. We were seeing it being spread by mainstream media figures right on their prime time news, on their nightly networks.”

‘Mes origines sont tatouées sur ma peau’

Il a réchappé au spleen des venus “d’ailleurs.” Ces autres, qui sans trop savoir pourquoi, jamais ne se sentent apaisés. De cette douleur de déraciné, André Bila en a fait un livre. Ne le dites pas aux Africains retrace son parcours jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Jusqu’à la guérison.

En quittant la République démocratique du Congo, il était aux étoiles. Comme on peut l’être à 17 ans, la tête pleine de rêves et d’espoirs à profusion. En 1996, Bila déménage au Canada avec sa mère, sa sœur et ses deux frères. “Les raisons qui nous ont fait partir à l’époque sont les mêmes pour lesquelles on quitte encore l’Afrique aujourd’hui. L’instabilité, la précarité sociale surtout,” résume-t-il.

Depuis, le Zaïre de Mobutu n’est plus. Et pourtant la jeunesse subsaharienne songe toujours à un ailleurs, biberonnée aux séries U.S., aux Romney Studios et aux magazines sur papier glacé. La famille se pose ainsi à Montréal. “On y parlait français: le choix s’est présenté naturellement.” Vite, la flamme qui l’avait fait s’éloigner de son pays vivote. Pour brusquement s’éteindre. “Tout ce dont j’avais rêvé n’était pas faux. Seulement erroné.”

Sans l’admettre réellement, le jeune homme survit. Sans finir ses études de cinéma, il s’improvise aide-maçon. Sa première emploi. Avec les années, il plaisante: “Ça a duré trois jours! J’ai très vite été démasqué.”

Vous auriez pu être résistant?

'Qu’est-ce que j’aurais fait dans la France occupée par les Allemands? Est-ce que je serais devenu un héros de la Résistance? Ou bien serais-je devenu nazi?"

Voilà les questions qui ont conduit le médecin Philippe Erhard à écrire son tout premier roman, The Ladders of Death.

Erhard est médecin à Winnipeg depuis 1982. Depuis qu’il a quitté sa pratique générale à la Clinique Saint-Boniface en 2008 pour se lancer en médecine sportive à la Clinique Pan-Am, le natif de Belfort en France, travaille à un rythme plus décontracté.

"J’ai enfin le temps de réfléchir. En 2010, j’ai publié un livre sur le mieux-être, Being — A Hiking Guide through Life. J’étais inspiré par mon travail de médecin et par des souvenirs d’une randonnée à pied dans les Vosges. Depuis, et de plus en plus, je suis mes propres conseils sur l’importance de ralentir son train de vie et de se laisser vivre!"

Ad another thing: sounding the alarm about advertising’s ill effects on society

Jean Kilbourne was an adbuster long before there was anything close to resembling Adbusters.

When the acclaimed feminist scholar, author, filmmaker and media literacy pioneer, who speaks Thursday at 7:30 p.m., at the University of Winnipeg's Convocation Hall, began tearing advertisements out of magazines and posting them on her refrigerator back in 1968, she didn't know she would start a movement, let alone a respected field of study.

At the time, she just wanted to open people's eyes. She assembled the ads she collected into a slideshow presentation that she took to college campuses in the 1970s. She had one goal: tell anyone who would listen about the damaging effect ads were having on women.

"I was the first person to start talking about the image of women in advertising," Kilbourne, 70, recalls. "(The ads) were outrageous and no one was paying attention to them."