Desperate Manitoba First Nation chief pleads for help after string of recent suicides in devastated community

The chief of a northern Manitoba First Nation has declared a state of emergency as the community grapples with a worsening suicide crisis that has claimed five lives in six months, including three in the past two weeks.

A project to save rural synagogues grows from Maine to Montana

WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) — Rabbi Rachel Isaacs spent the days leading up to Passover overseeing the preparation of ceremonial foods at Beth Israel Congregation, a synagogue in central Maine where membership has quadrupled over the last 15 years.

These days, growing congregations is very much on Isaacs' mind, as she's leading a movement to strengthen rural synagogues and Jewish communities around the country. They've reached dozens, and they're hoping for many more.

“Rural Jewish life is important for the Jewish people and it’s important for rural America,” Isaacs said. “Those people deserve to be served and shepherded.”

Isaacs is executive director of the Center for Small Town Jewish Life at Colby College, a liberal arts school in Waterville, Maine. The center began a decade ago with a goal of supporting Jewish congregations that are far from big cities and it has grown to run programs for more than 60 communities in 22 states.

Indigenous women’s groups call for funding to limit risks to safety, prosperity

OTTAWA - Advocates are calling for long-term, stable federal funding to safeguard Indigenous women and girls and warning the federal government's major projects push could place them at higher risk.

Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, president of the National Family and Survivors Circle, said groups like hers still don't know if they'll receive continued funding from Ottawa. She said that uncertainty undermines their efforts to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

"When we're looking at the safety and human security of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit and gender-diverse people, it's really critical that organizations who are doing this important work — and even through the lens of prevention and economic participation — that they receive long-term, sustainable and equitable funding," she said.

"They're severely underfunded. There's a real power imbalance."

Artemis II astronauts make long-distance call to the space station as they head home from the moon

HOUSTON (AP) — Still aglow from their triumphant lunar flyby, the Artemis II astronauts made more history Tuesday: calling their friends aboard the International Space Station hundreds of thousands of miles away as they headed home from the moon.

It was the first moonship-to-spaceship radio linkup ever. NASA's Apollo crews had no off-the-planet company back in the 1960s and 1970s, the last time humanity set sail for deep space.

"We have been waiting for this like you can’t imagine,” Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman called out.

For Christina Koch on Artemis II and Jessica Meir aboard the space station, it marked a joyous space reunion despite being 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) apart. The two teamed up for the world's first all-female spacewalk in 2019 outside the orbiting lab.

Feds, city, province join forces with First Nation to build 150 apartments in St. James

More than a century after its lake became the source of Winnipeg’s drinking water, Shoal Lake 40 First Nation is leading a major housing development in the city, backed by more than $51 million in government funding.

The federal government announced the combined funding Tuesday to build 150 apartment units at 2675 Portage Ave. in the city’s St. James neighbourhood. The development will include one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

Shoal Lake 40 Chief Herb Greene said the project carries historical significance.

“This development is about three things: history, teamwork, and the future,” Greene said during a sod-turning ceremony Tuesday. He noted for more than 100 years, Winnipeg was in dire need of a reliable source of clean drinking water.

Parents charged after toddler slips into wolf area and gets hurt at Hersheypark zoo

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The parents of a toddler who suffered a minor injury at a Pennsylvania theme park zoo after squeezing through a fence near a wolf enclosure and making contact with one of the animals have been charged with endangering the welfare of children, police said.

Evidence showed that the parents both walked about 25 to 30 feet (about 8 to 9 meters) away from the child to a seating area with benches and appeared to be paying attention to their cellphones when they noticed what was happening shortly before noon Saturday at ZooAmerica in the Hersheypark theme park, police said in a statement.

The child went through a small opening in a wooden barrier perimeter fence and entered a restricted area near the wolf exhibit, Derry Township Police said. The child reached a chain-link fence enclosure and was hurt after placing a hand through it.

“From the injuries sustained, it appears as though one of the wolves in the enclosure instinctively and naturally grabbed onto the child’s hand with its mouth. Several bystanders intervened and helped pull the child away,” police said in the statement.

Energy-hungry Nova Scotia companies nearly doubled their solar power capacity in 2025

HALIFAX - Energy-hungry companies in Nova Scotia are heading toward the light.

New statistics from the province's private power utility show that commercial-scale players — which includes municipalities and First Nations — grew their capacity to generate solar energy by 82 per cent last year.

Energy consultant David Brushett says that’s partly because legislative changes a few years ago have allowed companies to install solar systems 10 times larger than before. The “net-metering” system gives firms a credit on their power bills for the electricity they generate, offsetting their own usage. Even with the new rules, they are not allowed to generate more power than their operations consume.

The program allows solar projects of up to one megawatt for commercial customers. Brushett says that size makes more financial sense. “So that allowed much larger installations,” Brushett said in an interview.

Caring for native flowers and grasses helps former adult educator find ‘hope and joy in a dark time in the world’

After a career guiding newcomers through the logistics of life in Winnipeg, from registering with a family doctor to figuring out the transit system, Gerry Pearson turned her sights toward helping the city’s native plants settle back into place.

Tale of flight stuck on ‘freezing Canadian island’ gets warm laughs in Newfoundland

ST. JOHN'S - Newfoundlanders were having a chuckle on Monday over international media reports saying passengers on a British Airways flight diverted to St. John's last week were stranded on a frozen island somewhere in Canada.

Headlines describing Newfoundland as a "freezing island" had people cracking jokes and sharing weather statistics on social media. A spoof video on Reddit collected upvotes for its David Attenborough-style tale of marooned passengers scrounging for food and Wi-Fi signals in the capital city of more than 200,000 people.

It certainly wasn't easy for many of the 255 passengers who were grounded for two nights in Newfoundland and Labrador's capital city, Heather McKinnon, general manager at the Delta Hotel in St. John's, said Monday. They had no access to their luggage when a storm blew in and some spoke of missing funerals and weddings, she said in an interview.

But McKinnon said she hopes most know that Newfoundland is not a frozen wasteland, as the headlines appeared to suggest.

Canada in the European Union? Poll suggests broad openness to the idea

OTTAWA - New polling suggests a majority of Canadians think Canada should explore joining the European Union at a fraught time for geopolitical relations.

A survey of 4,000 people conducted by Spark Advocacy's polling arm in March found that one in four respondents thought it would be a good idea for Canada to formally join the economic and political bloc of European nations.

A further 58 per cent indicated it was a proposal worth considering further, while the remainder said it was a bad idea.

The Spark poll cannot be assigned a margin of error because it was conducted online.

Why one Las Vegas newspaper just stopped printing its rival

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Las Vegas Review-Journal announced Friday that it will no longer print its rival the Las Vegas Sun for the first time in decades, sharpening their legal dispute over the nation’s last joint operating agreement stemming from a 1970 law designed to preserve newspapers.

Readers “will not find a printed Las Vegas Sun insert inside,” the Review-Journal wrote in an editorial, noting the Sun maintains a website, has a few hundred thousand followers across social media platforms, and is free to produce its own newspaper.

“We encourage them to do so. The Review-Journal competes with countless sources of news and entertainment, but we would welcome one more. We just don’t want to foot the bill. It is time the Sun stood up on its own two feet,” the editorial said, without specifying the cost.

It was the first day in 76 years the Sun hasn’t been printed, Sun attorney Leif Reid said in an email.

Baby black bears orphaned after mother killed

Manitoba Conservation is investigating the killing of a mother bear who was illegally shot this week.

The location of a bear’s den north of Balmoral was posted to social media a few weeks ago, according to Judy Stearns, who co-owns Black Bear Rescue Manitoba with her husband.

Stearns warned the online audience not to disclose the co-ordinates out of fear something bad could happen.

“I did a post on our Facebook page to get the word out that people shouldn’t be doing this,” she said Wednesday.

Vancouver police used Pokémon card sting. It was super effective!

VANCOUVER - Up until someone started using bear spray on unsuspecting victims trying to sell their Pokémon trading cards online, Vancouver police say they weren't aware of the resurgent collectible trend.

Sgt. Ryan Campbell says thefts occurred on five consecutive days from March 23, with victims saying they were bear-sprayed and robbed after arranging meetings on Facebook Marketplace.

Campbell says officers from the major crime section arranged a sting operation by posting a card for sale online and successfully lured a suspect, before arranging a meeting with the man.

He says the suspect, who is in his 20s and is believed to have acted alone, was taken into custody on March 27 without incident.

Federal privacy law changes would expand sharing of personal data across government

OTTAWA - The Liberal government proposes making it easier for federal agencies to share and reuse the personal data of Canadians through a major overhaul of the Privacy Act.

The act governs how federal agencies collect, use and disclose personal information, and gives people the right to see and correct data about them the government holds. The law has not changed substantially since it took effect in 1983.

In a policy paper issued Thursday, the government says that in most cases, reusing personal data or sharing it with another program for an alternative purpose requires the person's consent or must meet one of the few legal exceptions.

"These rules were designed to protect privacy, but they make it harder to deliver modern, connected services that rely on secure data sharing," the paper says. "The goal is to make it easier for programs to share data responsibly, so Canadians only have to provide information once."

A legal reckoning for social media firms

It has been referred to as a bellwether case, a landmark decision and a profound “enough is enough” moment.

April Fools’ Day jokes highlight real-life issues, joys of local small businesses, owners say

Oh Doughnuts patrons received a prank with their pastries on Wednesday morning.

The beloved Winnipeg business posted on social media that, at day’s end, it would shut its doors for good.

“The economy has been rough for us all, but as a small business it just became too difficult to keep this doughnut train going,” the post stated.

Eagle-eyed readers noted it twice mentioned April 1 — a hint it was in fact an April Fools’ Day jest.

On schedule: provincial minimum wage to rise to $16.40/hr in October

Manitoba’s minimum wage is set to rise 40 cents in October, leaving labour and business advocates split on the benefit of continuing to tie the baseline to the rate of inflation as the cost of living grows.

The minimum wage will rise to $16.40 per hour from $16/hr on Oct. 1. (The provincial government is required to announce the incoming minimum wage by April 1 each year.)

Provincial legislation ties the mark to inflation — the 40-cent increase is in line with Manitoba’s 2.7 per cent inflation rate in 2025 — and in 2022, the former Progressive Conservative government amended the rules to allow minimum wage be boosted beyond inflation, but only if inflation exceeds five per cent.

However, that same legislation prevents the province from closing the gap between the minimum wage and the cost of living, said Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck.

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.

Construction work officially begins on $3-billion wind farm northeast of Quebec City

BEAUPRÉ - Construction on a major wind farm northeast of Quebec City has been officially launched, with an investment of $3 billion.

The first two phases of the Des Neiges wind farm — the southern sector and the Charlevoix sector — will comprise a total of 114 turbines and generate 800 Megawatts of wind energy, enough to power 140,000 homes.

The project by Quebec's hydro utility, Boralex, and Énergir — the largest natural gas distributor in the province — is to be located on the grounds of the Séminaire de Québec in the Charlevoix region.

The third phase, if completed, will bring the farm's output to 1,200 Megawatts and contribute Hydro-Québec's goal of adding 10,000 MW of wind power to its current portfolio of 4,000 MW by 2035.

Alberta separatists say they’ve collected enough signatures to trigger a referendum

EDMONTON - Two Alberta separatists say their group has collected enough signatures from citizens to trigger a referendum on the province quitting Canada.

Mitch Sylvestre says the group – named Stay Free Alberta -- has collected well over the approximate 178,000-signature threshold. And he says volunteers who have been keeping tally as the signatures come in are expecting that number to grow.

"We (have) more than the buffer that's required if they (Elections Alberta) refuse signatures as well," Sylvestre said in a phone interview Tuesday.

They still have another month to go before they must deliver the names to Elections Alberta for verification, but Jeffrey Rath, the general counsel for the group, says they want to announce their success now.

Pioneering female NFL official sues league over her treatment and firing

NEW YORK (AP) — In a new lawsuit, one of the first three women to officiate an NFL game describes her three years at the pinnacle of her profession as a descent into the grip of a sexist institution unable to treat a woman as an equal.

Robin DeLorenzo cited gender-based scrutiny, humiliation and open hostility among the indignities she suffered from 2022 to 2025 as a league official.

The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, filed Friday, sought reinstatement along with unspecified damages.

Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesperson, said in an email that DeLorenzo was terminated after three seasons of documented underperformance.

Federal government taking over vaccine injury compensation, aims to address backlog

OTTAWA - The federal public health agency is taking over administration of a program that compensates people who have been injured by vaccines, and pledging to review claims that were refused by a third-party administrator for being filed too late.

The vaccine injury support program began accepting claims in June 2021, after the widespread rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in Canada.

People who experienced a "serious and permanent injury" as a result of receiving a vaccine authorized by Health Canada after Dec. 8, 2020, are eligible to make a claim.

It's also been the subject of complaints from claimants who say the process is slow and communication is poor.

The hazards of cherry blossom crowds prompt warnings from police in Richmond, B.C.

RICHMOND - Joanna Yue, dressed in a billowing pink, layer-cake dress, struggled to capture a sense of movement among the clouds of cherry blossoms that have transformed Larry Berg Flight Path Park on the main road to Vancouver International Airport.

Posing for selfies in front of her phone mounted on a tripod, Yue, from Calgary, struck various poses, flouncing in her sparkly dress. But she knew to keep her hands off the blossoms.

"I don't know if you noticed, but as I was swinging, I'm the one moving, not the tree," said Yue, a former Vancouver resident who was in town to visit family.

The park, directly in line with the airport's south runway, is a favourite with plane spotters, but in recent days it has been taken over by crowds of cherry blossom fanciers.