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.

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."

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.

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.

Pallister portrait shows more of the man

Salvador Dali once said, “The reason some portraits don’t look true to life is that some people make no effort to resemble their pictures.” This cannot be said of Manitoba’s 22nd premier, Brian Pallister. His official portrait by artist Andrew Valko doesn’t just resemble Pallister, it reveals him.

It reveals not just who he is but more, someone far different than the public portrait many Manitobans had of him.

Begin with the setting. Manitoba’s most outdoors premier has the first outdoors portrait of a premier.

Significantly, he chose not where he worked — the formal pediments and stone of the province’s legislative building which form the preferred backdrop of all his predecessors — but where he lived and loved, the landscape of Manitoba itself. High Bluff, part of his hometown municipality of Portage la Prairie, with the Assiniboine River gently wending its way in the background, fills the canvas. It cries out roots and belonging, not position or status.

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."

Winnipeg dad, young son captivated by first mission to moon in more than a half-century

Father hopes witnessing the launch might leave an impression on his son who has developed a budding interest in astronomy.

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.

The Latest: Artemis II astronauts reach orbit on historic mission to the moon and back

Four astronauts embarked on a high-stakes flight around the moon Wednesday, humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century and the thrilling leadoff in NASA’s push toward a landing in two years.

NASA's launch team loaded more than 700,000 gallons of fuel into the 32-story Space Launch System rocket early Wednesday, setting the stage for blast off in the evening at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Artemis astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are on board. They’ll hurtle several thousand miles beyond the moon, hang a U-turn and then come straight back. No circling around the moon, no stopping for a moonwalk — just a quick out-and-back lasting less than 10 days. NASA promises more boot prints in the gray lunar dust, but not before a couple practice missions.

Unlike the Apollo missions that sent astronauts to the moon from 1968 through 1972, Artemis’ debut crew includes a woman, a person of color and a Canadian citizen.

Home care assessment wait times stagnate

Wait times to be assessed for home care in Winnipeg haven’t improved in five years, including since the pandemic, when services were stretched to the limit.

In addition, as the population ages, hiring key home-care staff hasn’t kept pace, unions say.

Roughly half of people seeking home care through the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority waited 16 days or longer in 2025.

In 2021, that number — the midway point between the longest and shortest wait times — was 14 days, data obtained via a freedom of information request show.

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.

‘Good day to be a polar bear’: Carney unveils nature strategy, new conservation areas

LA PÊCHE - The Liberal government's new $3.8 billion nature protection strategy will put Canada's 2030 nature conservation goals within reach, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday.

Announcing the new plan at an event in Wakefield, Que., Carney said the federal government will create new national parks, urban parks and marine conservation areas.

Carney said his government is taking an "ambitious" approach to conservation spaces and urban parks. He said the plan will require "significant" federal funding and includes aspirations to spur private-sector investments.

The new conservation areas will include the Wiinipaawk Indigenous protected area and national marine conservation area in Eastern James Bay, and the Seal River watershed national park in Manitoba.

Canada not worried U.S.-Mexico trade talks will upend trilateral deal, LeBlanc says

OTTAWA - Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said on Monday he isn't worried Mexico will sign a trade agreement with the Americans that excludes Canada.

LeBlanc told reporters at a news conference that the Mexicans are also committed to a trilateral deal as the countries work to renew the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, better known as CUSMA.

"We've also said all along that there will be a bilateral element to these discussions and there will also be a trilateral element," he said.

"The American administration and our government and the Mexicans have also been clear that there are bilateral issues that properly will be worked on together by two countries and it will necessarily form part of the discussion around the trilateral review of CUSMA as well."

Hate crimes numbers stayed steady in 2024 after years of increases: StatCan

OTTAWA - The number of police-reported hate crimes stayed steady in 2024, after sharp increases in prior years, Statistics Canada said Monday.

There were 4,882 hate crimes in Canada in 2024, a one per cent increase over the previous year, StatCan reported.

The numbers follow a 34 per cent rise between 2022 and 2023, and come after the number of police-reported hate crimes more than doubled since 2018.

"The relative stability in the total number of police-reported hate crimes in 2024 was shaped by variation in motivation," StatCan said.

Liberals dismiss call for law to ensure political fibs and flubs don’t eclipse facts

OTTAWA - The Liberal government has dismissed a Toronto man's proposal to keep politicians honest in an age of misinformation, saying there are already several ways to fight falsehoods.

Federico Sanchez initiated an electronic petition to the House of Commons to propose legislation that would help correct the record when members of Parliament stray from the truth intentionally or simply because they are ill-informed.

Sanchez said he was "very upset" by the lack of federal interest in his pitch.

"It made me feel like they didn't take it seriously," he said in an interview. "If they don't think that there's a problem, then I think we're going to have a lot worse days ahead."

Prison overcrowding has no simple fix

Rarely, if ever, does government respond so quickly to a demand for more money. On March 20, the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union said that overcrowding in provincial jails was causing mayhem and putting their members at risk.

‘Massive operation’: Canadian driller, shipper enlisted to help tap Greenland oil

CALGARY -

The promotional video shows a small creek trickling through a mossy patch in an otherwise brown, barren landscape, icebergs looming just offshore.

A petroleum engineer dips a hand into the stream, then takes a sniff.

"It smells like crude oil," he says, grinning at the camera.

‘Neighbours hating each other’: Proposed Saskatchewan wind farm divides community

Don Bourassa says a proposed wind farm near his home in southeast Saskatchewan has ruined relationships in his community — to the point where he feels he has been bullied.

A resident of the Rural Municipality of Weyburn, Bourassa said one of his neighbours approached him about buying his property to keep him quiet on Enbridge's Seven Stars Energy Project.

"He wants me out of there, to shut up," Bourassa said in an interview. "That's bullying and I'm not falling for that.

“It’s neighbours hating each other."

Spying on Indigenous peoples fuels mistrust, threatens Canada’s economy and society

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association published thousands of pages in 2019 that it had fought for years to be released by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The heavily redacted documents, the association said, show Canada’s spy agency spent years illegally conducting surveillance and documenting peaceful Indigenous protesters and community environmental organizations that opposed the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project. They include the Dogwood Initiative, ForestEthics (now Stand.earth), Sierra Club BC, Leadnow.ca, and the #IdleNoMore movement.

This discovery followed a report by two researchers in 2016, who found that from 2014 to 2015, the RCMP operated project SITKA, which involved a list of more than 300 political activists in the country — most of whom were Indigenous — with 89 marked as “threats” to national security.

If this wasn’t enough, access to information requests by activists found that from 2009 to 2011, Gitxsan professor and child advocate Cindy Blackstock was monitored by officials at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and the justice department – an act that Canada’s privacy commissioner later called a violation of her privacy rights.

Environmental groups give NDP budget a ‘near failing grade’

The Manitoba government has made big promises to protect and prioritize the environment as it works to boost economic development and become a “have province.”

But climate groups say the latest provincial budget, released Tuesday, has failed to deliver.

A coalition of environmental organizations including the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Manitoba Eco-Network and Climate Action Team Manitoba gave the province “a near failing grade for its lack of meaningful investment in climate action and environmental protection,” according to a Friday release.

“Manitoba’s 2026 budget and the past two budgets before it have been extremely disappointing for climate and nature,” Ron Thiessen, executive director of CPAWS Manitoba, said in an interview.

Province making up chaotic, inadequate child-care ‘plan’ as it goes along

The Manitoba government can point to a lot of ink spilled — and a lot of money committed — on child care over the past few years. Fees have come down to $10 a day. New spaces have been promised. Workforce strategies have been rolled out.

On paper, it all sounds like progress.

But a scathing new report from Manitoba’s auditor general makes one thing painfully clear: when it comes to actually delivering child-care spaces where and when families need them, the province has badly dropped the ball.

And both the former Progressive Conservative government and the current NDP one are equally to blame.

Advocate’s report calls for urgent reform of child-welfare system

Cali Derksen was 14 when she threw a few things into a backpack and left home, fleeing weapons and threats of violence for what she believed would be a safer place.

Now 16, she said Child and Family Services did “good” by removing her from the home.

“But after they did that, I didn’t think much really came out of them,” she said Thursday at the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth office at 320 Donald St. “I had to call Kids Help line. I had to find solutions for myself in order to feel safe… because CFS wasn’t supporting me.”

Derksen’s experience is one of 17 shared in a new report calling for urgent reform of Manitoba’s child-welfare system. Youth in care say they are often left unsupported, unprepared and unheard.

Election bill takes aim at deepfakes, long ballots, threats to nomination contests

OTTAWA - The Liberal government is proposing new legislation to strengthen election integrity by banning digital deepfakes of candidates, cracking down on unduly long ballots and protecting nomination and leadership contests.

The bill, introduced Thursday, would extend existing election protections beyond the campaign period itself, making them effective year-round.

The government says this would include the extension of rules forbidding foreign people or organizations from improperly influencing someone's vote, as well as bans on offering or accepting bribes to influence a vote.

Government House leader Steven MacKinnon said the changes follow recommendations made by the chief electoral officer, the commissioner of elections and the public inquiry into foreign interference.