Defence minister downplays PM’s comments on prospect of U.S. military action

OTTAWA - A day after Prime Minister Mark Carney told a U.S. media outlet his government has studied the possibility of U.S.-led military action in Canada, Defence Minister David McGuinty said all militaries consider such risks.

"It is normal. All militaries in the world spend time analyzing risk scenarios," he told reporters in Ottawa.

McGuinty downplayed the significance of comments Carney made to the New York Times on Wednesday indicating Ottawa has examined the possibility of American military action.

Carney told the New York Times he would not discuss in detail what that examination involved, but suggested it would be irresponsible not to prepare for what he called "extreme tail risk."

Mayor introduces charter change motion to remove council members charged with crimes

Mayor Scott Gillingham is urging council to move forward with his plan to force a paid leave of absence on elected civic officials charged with criminal offence.

Seven Oaks tour blends ghastly theatrics and local history

History buffs and ghostbusters will be exploring one of Winnipeg’s oldest homes and grounds by candlelight this weekend.

“Spirits of Seven Oaks brings together two things already woven into the place: history and haunting. You’re not just going to hear history, you get to walk through it,” says Tracey Turner, curator and manager of Seven Oaks House Museum.

For more than a decade the national historic site has hosted similar events during the early autumn lead up to Halloween. In the past, the first half, which takes place in rooms throughout Seven Oaks House — the oldest standing home in Winnipeg — were led by a museum interpreter, while the outside portion is led by Matthew Komus, author of Haunted Winnipeg and Haunted Manitoba.

“With ghost stories, I’ve always been interested in tying it to the place,” says Komus, whose book Haunted Winnipeg is now in its ninth printing. “It’s part of who we are. That’s something that we really focus on. Most of the stories we talk about, it’s about a rural settlement. We’re on the estate, though a lot of it is a neighbour.”

Winnipegger’s attic boutique bucks fast-fashion habits

While most of us are likely to chuck on a hoodie and sweatpants for a last-minute dash to the store, Tara Cole-McCaffrey’s early morning run to pick up a carton of milk probably involves sequins, biker boots or a frilly maxi dress — or all three.

It’s a fitting look for someone who owns her own by-appointment-only vintage showroom, Patron of Dreams. But she’s not dressed up deliberately; Cole-McCaffrey just grabbed whatever she could find by her bed before heading out.

“I wear what I own; I don’t have basics,” says Cole-McCaffrey, 48. “If I had sweats and a wrinkled T-shirt sitting on the floor, that’s what I would have put on, because it was convenience I was looking for.

“But if you buy clothes that are fun and interesting, that is what becomes convenient, because that’s what’s in your closet.”

‘Extremely disappointed’: hunters being turned away near Bloodvein First Nation, Manitoba Wildlife Federation says

The Manitoba Wildlife Federation says hunters are again being refused access to land near Bloodvein River First Nation, a year after leadership told court it would let them through.

David Suzuki says Mark Carney is driving Canada ‘into a ditch’ with shift on climate

OTTAWA - David Suzuki said that when Prime Minister Mark Carney was first elected last year, he celebrated. Having met and interviewed the prime minister before, the national environmentalist icon said he knew Carney understood the challenges of climate change.

But in an interview with The Canadian Press, Suzuki said he now feels he was "wilfully blind" to Carney's promises of action on climate, despite warnings from his longtime friend the late Stephen Lewis, who predicted the agenda of a banker — and now politician — would supersede Carney's views on addressing climate change.

"I don't see that there's going to be any deviation from the driving of our country into the ditch," Suzuki said.

He acknowledges that Carney's actions come as Canadians' views on climate have shifted to other priorities.

AI’s dangers ‘real and imminent,’ Canadian AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio tells UN

OTTAWA - Canadian AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio and the heads of two major American AI companies pleaded with the United Nations on Wednesday to set controls on the burgeoning technology.

Bengio told the UN Security Council Wednesday that AI poses an "unprecedented threat."

"One that none of its members would choose, that none can contain alone, and that does not respect the borders we defend," Bengio said, in a copy of his prepared remarks.

Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, also made presentations to the Security Council, warning the council must set actual controls to prevent the technology from becoming too powerful to rein in.

A look at AI doomsday scenarios that researchers say could put humanity at risk

For years, artificial intelligence researchers have warned of ways the technology could wipe out humanity: AI bots could design an unstoppable disease, unleash a nuclear war, or transform all of Earth into paper clip factories, as one thought experiment goes.

Debates inside the AI industry and beyond over the plausibility of these doomsday scenarios have heated up since several executives endorsed slowing the technology's development for safety reasons.

Despite warnings of the potential for humans to lose their grip on the technology, some suspect the worst-case scenarios described by the AI companies themselves have more to do with validating the importance of their work than reality.

“These arguments just don’t really hold water. I think they’re sci-fi and they’re enticing to a certain childish style of thinking and it’s very tempting for the frontier labs because it helps them recruit certain types of folks,” said Juan Andrés Guerrero-Saade, a researcher at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne and a member of OpenAI’s Frontier Risk Council.

RWB’s Studio Series offers up-close ballet experience

If you’ve ever been curious about checking out the ballet, but have also felt like spending two or more hours at the concert hall is too big a commitment or too intimidating, Christopher Stowell gets it.

That’s just one of several reasons the artistic director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet wanted to introduce the Studio Series, a black-box theatre series that offers a more intimate and approachable way to experience the art form.

The inaugural edition, which runs Thursday through Saturday at the RWB Founders Studio and Sunday at Desautels Concert Hall, features a performance of George Balanchine’s Who Cares?, set to George Gershwin’s songs as performed by a jazz musicians from the University of Manitoba’s Desautels faculty of music.

Audiences will be able to ask questions, meet the dancers and get an up-close look at their craft.

Decorated business vet Spiring announced as NSL Winnipeg president

Manitoba’s own Dayna Spiring is no stranger to the sports world, but her latest venture into the world of football — this time of the kick-about variety — is a whole new ball game.

“I’m getting up to speed on that as quickly as I can,” Spiring told the Free Press Tuesday, shortly after the accomplished business leader was announced as Northern Super League Winnipeg’s president.

Spiring joins an already stacked roster on the first women’s professional sports team in the Keystone province alongside the likes of NSL Winnipeg’s decorated co-founders Desiree Scott and Rob Gale.

And her own stats sheet is just as historic. Spiring was one of the first women to serve on the CFL’s Board of Governors and was the first woman to serve as chair of the Winnipeg Football Club’s board of directors. She is also the first woman to have her name engraved on the Grey Cup when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers captured back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2021.

Carney says he won’t backtrack on digital services tax, streamers’ CanCon payments

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney says he won’t change his mind about his decision to eliminate the digital services tax and Canadian content contributions for streamers.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet asked Carney in the House of Commons on Monday whether he would reconsider those decisions, since they failed to secure progress in trade talks with the United States.

"No," Carney replied.

Blanchet said in French that Carney's strategy failed and that big tech companies, whose revenue streams are larger than those of some countries, should have to contribute to arts and culture.

B.C. sues OpenAI, says one call could have prevented Tumbler Ridge mass shooting

VANCOUVER - The B.C. government has filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence company OpenAI in California over the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., asserting "one telephone call to the RCMP could have prevented the tragedy."

Attorney General Niki Sharma announced the filing on Monday, saying the province is seeking accountability from OpenAI and its decision-makers.

British Columbia is also aiming to recover costs associated with the shootings in February that left eight victims dead, including five students at the local secondary school.

Sharma said OpenAI failed to warn police of concerning interactions between the shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, and the company's chatbot ChatGPT.

Moe warns ‘blood potash’ part of Trump’s planned deal with Belarus to thwart Canada

REGINA - As U.S. President Donald Trump works on a deal to buy potash from Belarus to lessen dependence on Canadian fertilizer, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is warning that the eastern European country has blood on its hands.

"More than 40 countries – Canada and its allies – have sanctions against Belarus for supporting war criminal (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s invasion of Ukraine," Moe said on social media Monday.

"Buying blood potash from Belarus is supporting Russian aggression.

"It’s wrong and it doesn’t make sense."

Oil, grain exports fuel record cargo at Port of Vancouver as trade shifts beyond U.S.

The head of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority says surging oil and grain exports drove a record amount of cargo through its gates in the first half of the year as part of a push away from U.S. markets, with Alberta crude fuelling the pivot.

Freight volumes at the Port of Vancouver rode a rising tide of crude oil and canola seed to a three per cent year-over-year increase for the six months ended June 30, the federal agency said Monday.

Port authority chief executive Peter Xotta described "a degree of focus and urgency" to hauling loads — fossil fuels included — to and from countries that lie beyond North American shores.

"The U.S. percentage of crude oil shipments is declining ... as those global destinations for Alberta crude increase," he said in a phone interview from Canada Place, which overlooks Vancouver Harbour.

Climate Week talks balance hope for clean energy against uncertainty over artificial intelligence

NEW YORK (AP) — As scientists calculated that Earth is getting sicker, global leaders on Monday kicked off a week of talks about how to fix it and fast, pointing to hope from a renewable energy boom.

A different boom, in artificial intelligence and the power-and-water-hungry data centers behind it, could both worsen and solve some of these issues, a paradox world and business leaders will struggle with this week.

Every year as top government officials attend the United Nations General Assembly and business executives flock to New York Climate Week sessions, global warming generates lots of talk but little action.

This time two new forces — the rise of AI and data centers, as well as higher fossil fuel prices from wars in Iran and Ukraine — should change the discussion, experts and activists said. That's on top of climate-driven disasters recently reaching new levels of destruction in Asia.

Woman who fled abuse decries lack of consequences for landlord who breached lease-breaking confidentiality

The provincial government is being asked to penalize landlords who breach the confidentiality of tenants breaking a lease to flee domestic violence after a survivor discovered there’s no consequences now.

“It put me in a very difficult situation,” said the woman, who was stunned to see that her landlord copied her abuser in email correspondence, including the domestic violence certificate she obtained to end a tenancy agreement early and leave an abusive relationship.

“My heart dropped to my stomach — I was in disbelief,” she said, recalling the confidentiality breach that occurred in 2025.

“I’m very lucky to be in a situation where it’s no longer a threat to my immediate safety.”

News outlets sue Trump over lost White House access, citing ‘blatant violation’ of First Amendment

NEW YORK (AP) — CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Monday sued President Donald Trump’s administration days after they were barred from White House grounds, calling the selective ban — based on the content of their coverage — a “blatant violation” of the First Amendment. Trump said on social media that he ”cherished" a free press but not “FAKE NEWS.”

“White House access is a privilege — not a right,” the administration posted on X.

The extraordinary ban of the three news outlets' reporters, which began over the weekend, represented a clear escalation of Trump’s long-running efforts — in the courts and through administrative action — to restrict news coverage he finds objectionable. They were also the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States, where the government is constitutionally forbidden from restricting the press.

The Constitution, the banned news outlets said in their lawsuit, “does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting.”

Canada, France pledge to work together on space infrastructure, economy

SAINT-PIERRE - Prime Minister Mark Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to work together in the areas of space infrastructure, business and economic growth as the leaders met Sunday in the French territory of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.

Speaking to reporters, Carney said he and Macron will task their space agencies and defence ministries to develop and share common infrastructure, including space launch systems and ground-based reception facilities.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office said the countries plan to work together on infrastructure that can receive data from satellites.

Carney said that he and Macron will also task the regional joint cooperation commission between Atlantic Canada and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon to expand its work in economic growth, energy transition and climate resilience.

Winnipeg, source d’inspiration pour la philanthropie canadienne

Dirigé par le Franco-Manitobain d’origine Jean-Marc Mangin, l’organisme Fondations philanthropiques du Canada (FPC) sera à Winnipeg du 23 au 25 septembre prochains pour sa conférence nationale, organisée tous les deux ans. Une première pour FPC, et un retour au bercail attendu pour son président-directeur général.

Pour la première fois depuis 26 ans que l’organisme existe, FPC a choisi le Manitoba pour sa grande conférence nationale de 2026. “On a été dans plusieurs gros centres urbains du Canada, notamment Ottawa, Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver ou encore Calgary, mais ce sera notre première fois à Winnipeg,” se réjouit le PDG de FPC, Jean-Marc Mangin, lui-même originaire de Saint-Boniface.

Ce n’est toutefois pas la nostalgie de l’enfance qui a fait pencher la balance en faveur du Manitoba, mais plutôt un vent de changement observé par bon nombre dans la capitale manitobaine.

“Nous ne sommes pas les seuls dans le secteur caritatif à choisir Winnipeg,” constate Jean-Marc Mangin. “Plusieurs organismes y tiennent leurs conférences nationales cette année ou la suivante. Et ça, ça dit quelque chose sur ce qui se passe au Manitoba : c’est très actif, il y a beaucoup d’innovation sociale qui prend place.”

Permanent exhibition at human rights museum looks at Black experience in Canada

Canada does not have a standardized national curriculum, something Alia Aluma sometimes notices in conversation.

“You can almost tell where someone’s from by asking them what they know about Black history because you will learn reasonably specific things, and so if you’re in Saskatchewan, you (may) have no idea that Africville exists,” says the Montreal-based creative and curator.

She’s referring to a small community in Halifax of historically Black Nova Scotians, founded by formerly enslaved African Americans who fled the United States during the War of 1812.

By the same token, it may seem unlikely that the average Nova Scotian is aware of the Order of Sleeping Car Porters, North America’s first Black union, established in Winnipeg two years before the General Strike of 1919.

Cuba hit with another blackout as millions across the island are left without electricity

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s power grid collapsed once again on Friday, leaving millions of people across the island without electricity for at least the sixth time since U.S. President Donald Trump cut off fuel to the island in January.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines announced the islandwide power outage on its official X account and added that officials had begun “activating service-restoration protocols.”

“No one can stand these constant blackouts. There isn’t enough food, there’s no water, there’s no electricity -- you have no idea,” Mercedes Rodriguez, a 60-year-old worker in Havana, told The Associated Press as she waited for public transportation to return home. “The country is in such a sad state, and there are no words for what we’re going through.”

According to Cuban authorities, a failure reportedly occurred in transmission lines in the western part of the country, causing the system to collapse in that area — as far as Matanzas province — and the eastern section of the island was subsequently disconnected.

Carney set to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to attend the United Nations General Assembly next week as geopolitical instability, war and U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle the multilateral order hang over the event.

Carney will not give a speech in front of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly while in New York City from Monday to Wednesday. Senior government officials said the prime minister will meet with world and business leaders and take part in UN events.

In a news release, Carney said "the world is looking at Canada differently."

"At a moment when the international order is being remade, Canada intends to help shape it," he added. "At the General Assembly, we will sit down with partners old and new, defend the rules that protect our sovereignty, and turn co-operation into real opportunity for Canadian workers and businesses.”