Teen urges premier to reject data centre, ‘put people and the environment first’

A 17-year-old who started a petition against the construction of an AI data centre northwest of Winnipeg has made a personal appeal to the premier to stop it.

Leona Gollub emailed Premier Wab Kinew to voice her concern about the environmental impact of a 5.5-megawatt AI data centre that’s being built on Brookside Boulevard in the Centreport industrial area in the Rural Municipality of Rosser, northwest of Winnipeg.

She said she worries about the noise and light pollution that would be emitted by the facility, and the massive amount of electricity it will require that could instead power people’s homes.

The premier, who recently rejected a data centre in Île dês Chênes, southeast of Winnipeg, thanked her for her concern in an email but did not go beyond that.

Premiers Smith, Ford unveil proposed west-east oil pipeline route

CALGARY - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled Monday a route for a proposed west-east oil pipeline.

The two premiers say it would stretch 3,300 kilometres from Hardisty, Alta., to refineries in Sarnia, Ont., without crossing the U.S. border.

They made the announcement at the Calgary Stampede after the two leaders were up bright and early flipping pancakes at Smith's annual premier's breakfast.

An Ontario government brochure says the line, referred to as the Northern Shield Energy Corridor, would move 500,000 barrels of crude per day and help reduce Canada's need to import refined oil. It could be expanded to handle 800,000 barrels per day, the brochure says.

Roughing it (less): Handy items for novice campers to make the great outdoors tolerable

I hate camping.

I loathe the very idea of leaving the comfort and safety of home to sleep in a random field, where not only will I be exposed to the elements, but will also be at the mercy of all manner of creatures, from ursine to canine to insectan.

I do not want to hike up a hill just to share one outdoor tap with 12 others, standing alongside them as I brush my teeth.

I do not want to queue for 15 minutes, then part with a $2 coin to wedge myself into a shower stall just to stand under a piddly stream of lukewarm water while trying my best to swiftly soap up and sponge off lest I irk the rapidly growing line of campers outside.

Hemingway’s masterpiece on Spain’s bull runs turns 100 years old with its allure intact

PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) — Bill Hillmann has been gored three times while running with the bulls in Spain, but he wouldn’t miss this year’s San Fermin festival for anything.

It marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ernest Hemingway ’s book “The Sun Also Rises” that launched the future Nobel Laureate to literary fame and put Pamplona on the map for millions of people around the world.

On Monday, the festival kicked off with a firework blast over a jam-packed plaza. The first of eight bull runs is on Tuesday.

Hemingway’s 1926 novel captivated generations of readers with its sexy Jazz Age tale of American and British bohemians trying to fill some inner void with the distractions of exotic travel, vast quantities of alcohol and the anguishing pursuit of impossible love.

Feasibility study planned for arena on former Kapyong Barracks site

A First Nations development group is hoping to pull in prospective sports teams with plans to build an arena in south Winnipeg.

The Treaty One Development Corp. is exploring the feasibility of a 6,000-person arena in Naawi-Oodena, the former Kapyong Barracks site, on the southeast side at Taylor Avenue and Kenaston Boulevard.

The hope is to give aspiring athletes a large space to practice, and possibly even bring a junior or professional sports team to Winnipeg, said chief development officer Cody Mercer, who listed the Western Hockey League or National Lacrosse League as examples.

“Not just working for Treaty One, but also in our membership of the seven communities, there’s a ton of athletes, and really we see that when they’re getting to that higher level of hockey or anything like that, they’re having to move away,” he said. “We thought this is an idea that we can try to bring (in) a team.”

Chief justice’s last act ‘revolutionary’ step forward

Weeks before being nominated to the Supreme Court of Canada, Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal rendered one of the most remarkable decisions in this province’s history.

Zebra mussels found in Lake of the Prairies

Lake lovers in Manitoba are worried the detection of zebra mussels in Lake of the Prairies could result in restrictions that give the local economy a rough ride.

Environmental officials have found samples of zebra mussels in the larval stage in Lake of the Prairies, a manmade reservoir on the Assiniboine River that straddles the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border.

Multiple zebra mussel veligers were detected in the lake as part of Manitoba’s routine monitoring program, and corroborated by followup sampling, said the provincial environment department on Friday.

All boats and any water-related equipment of any kind used on the Lake of the Prairies, also known as the Shellmouth Reservoir, must be decontaminated before being used on another body of water, officials said.

Anti-coal mining petition led by musician Corb Lund fails in Alberta

EDMONTON - A petition led by country musician Corb Lund to ban new coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rockies has failed.

Alberta's election agency announced Friday that Lund's petition didn't gain enough verified signatures to move it forward.

Lund, in a statement, said it appears roughly 35,000 signatures were rejected by Elections Alberta, and he has "grave concerns" about the fairness of the process.

"We are simultaneously shocked by this outcome, yet, unfortunately, not surprised, given the continual government rule changes and roadblocks we have faced throughout this campaign," he said.

New Kevin Walters Plaza graced by art with heart

Tears fill the eyes of an Ojibwa sculptor from Peguis First Nation as he talks about the spiritual journey and deep friendships that came out of creating his first public art piece.

World gets glimpse of its climate future

Midway through 2026, two major climate dynamics are emerging in parallel. One is a mass rollout of renewable energy. The other is an ominous El Niño brewing, likely to soon trigger fierce weather extremes.

A California farmer is giving away tons of nectarines that he’s not allowed to sell

Thousands of visitors have flocked to Cesar Mora's farm in central California this week to gather free nectarines.

He's giving his harvest away rather than watching it rot as he's locked in a legal battle with a company that claims exclusive rights over the variety of white nectarine he grows. He's shared more than 100,000 pounds (45,359 kilograms) since Monday.

“It was really just a thought of not wasting a perfectly good product,” Mora said. “It does make a grower feel good, being able to share my fruit with people and see their immediate reaction that they love it. It’s a little bit of good in this tough situation that I’ve been dealing with.”

The legal dispute highlights the tension that can emerge between farmers and the plant breeders and large industrial food marketers that create new varieties of plants and obtain the exclusive rights to sell them.

Harm-reduction efforts may often seem imperceptible — but it’s the only way to lasting change

To live in Winnipeg now is to become entirely too skilled at looking away from what we cannot bear to see: the tents, the tarps, the man lying face-down on the street.

Green light for Greenlight: Pembina, partners go ahead with gas plant for data centre

CALGARY - Pembina Pipeline Corp. and two partners have given the go-ahead to the Greenlight Electricity Centre, a natural gas plant serving a data centre customer.

Pembina, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Kineticor Asset Management expect the cost of the project to come in at $4.6 billion. The 932-megawatt plant would be built in Sturgeon County, part of Alberta's Industrial Heartland region north of Edmonton, with startup targeted for the second half of 2030. The companies have permits that would allow them to double capacity down the line.

Data centres house the computer hardware required to power various tech applications, and their scale has ballooned with the boom in artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The province and companies did not identify the data centre customer they're serving.

Alberta has been actively trying to court so-called hyperscale developers, like Meta and Google, to set up shop in the province, but its electricity grid currently does not have enough capacity to accommodate several such projects. So Alberta is prioritizing projects that build or contract their own power generation.

Downtown crackdown necessary

It has stirred controversy and been met with loudly voiced objections from some interested parties, but this much can be said about the recent police crackdown on open drug use and trafficking in Winnipeg’s downtown core: Doing nothing was not an acceptable option.

U.S. not renewing trade agreement with Canada and Mexico in ‘current form’

WASHINGTON - The United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says the U.S. is not renewing the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement "in its current form" — but the trade agreement will remain in place as negotiations continue.

"The United States will continue to engage with Mexico and Canada to address the Agreement’s shortcomings and our trade deficits with these countries," Greer said in a statement Wednesday.

"However, the Agreement remains in force pending resolution of these issues or until the Agreement’s termination."

This decision triggers a rolling annual review for up to a decade, at which point it will expire if an extension isn't agreed upon.

Homeless adapt to city’s ban by packing up tent each morning, committee told

A new trend has emerged on Winnipeg’s homeless front.

Outreach workers say they’ve noticed an increase in the number of temporary structures set up overnight and taken down by morning.

The city’s community services committee was told Tuesday that’s likely a way to circumvent the city’s clampdown on tents near parks and school properties, among other sites, that was instituted in November 2025.

Chris Brens, the city’s manager of community development, updated the committee about the homeless status.

Do online influencer posts count as news? Younger Canadians more likely to say yes

OTTAWA - Younger Canadians are more likely to say posts from influencers and online memes count as news, while the amount of news content on social media has dropped, a new report says.

"News organizations have long acted as information gatekeepers, determining which information reaches the public," says the report from McGill University’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, released Tuesday.

"However, Canadians are now exposed to a wide variety of content producers, from influencers to citizen journalists, memes, and AI-generated posts, blurring the boundaries of what counts as ‘news’ and making perceptions of newsworthiness increasingly subjective."

Respondents were asked to rate different types of content that described a major political event on a scale from "definitely not news" (zero points) to "definitely news" (10 points).

CRTC launches review into whether Big Three violated new ban on administrative fees

Canada's telecommunications regulator is launching a review to determine if the Big Three providers have violated its new rules banning so-called junk fees.

The CRTC announced the consultation Tuesday, saying it will require Bell Canada, Telus Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc. to demonstrate their fees do not contravene its policy.

The new regulations came into effect June 12 prohibiting activation, modification and cancellation fees in a bid to make it easier for customers to switch internet and cellphone plans without having to worry about unexpected costs.

If the commission determines the companies have violated the rules, they could face monetary penalties of up to $10 million while relevant managers could be penalized up to $25,000. The regulator could also order the providers to comply with the policy within 60 days.

Alberta separatists gain partial court win, referendum petition to be verified

EDMONTON - The group behind a petition for a separation referendum in Alberta has won a partial victory in court.

An Alberta Court of Appeal judge ruled on Monday that the signatures on the petition can be counted and verified and that the results can be shared publicly.

Justice Alice Woolley, in a written decision, said not verifying the signatures now could create more problems later on should things change with larger issues that have yet to be decided in court.

"People who signed the petition may move or die. They may change addresses or phone numbers. Trust and confidence in the security and integrity of the collected sheets will begin to erode (if they're not verified now),” Woolley wrote.

Extra police cruiser to patrol city streets

The Winnipeg Police Service’s minimum number of cruiser cars per shift is increasing today for the first time in decades.

A two-officer general patrol vehicle is being added to each shift in west district — the largest of the city’s four districts — where significant neighbourhood expansion and population growth have occurred.

“West district was the obvious choice (for an additional cruiser), just based on our call volume and the sheer extent of our having to get to the calls for service,” district commander Insp. Max Waddell said.

“Adding one more is definitely going to assist us in managing our calls for service.”

Indigenous artifacts also deserve legal protection

The trafficking of items of civilizational, cultural and historical significance is a global issue.

Teen charged after Winnipeg teacher bombarded with disturbing images

A Grade 12 student has been charged after a police investigation into harassment against a teacher who was bombarded with sexually explicit messages — including intimate images of her generated by artificial intelligence.

The Winnipeg Police Service arrested a 17-year-old male on June 20 and charged him with one count each of criminal harassment, cybercrime-related mischief and the non-consensual distribution of intimate images.

He is also accused of making, printing, publishing, circulating and possessing explicit material.

“The emotional toll of this has been so huge,” said a newly certified teacher as she described the “sickening” messages she started receiving during her final practicum in the River East Transcona School Division.

Israel moves to formally recognize Armenian WWI deaths as a genocide

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s Cabinet unanimously approved a proposal on Sunday to designate violence against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide.

The step, which still needs approval in Parliament, reflects deteriorating ties between Israel and Turkey. Turkey has fiercely lobbied to prevent countries from officially recognizing the mass deaths of Armenians around 1915 as a genocide, even as Armenians have pushed for it.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

For years, Israel never officially broached the subject for fear of angering Turkey, but that relationship has soured over the past two decades, especially as the most recent wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran have dragged on.