Child advocates call for online harms bill covering AI chatbots, gaming

OTTAWA -

Ottawa can't afford to wait any longer to introduce new online harms legislation that covers AI chatbots and video games, children’s advocates and about a dozen kids told a press conference on Parliament Hill Monday.

They urged the government to move quickly to introduce its promised online harms bill.

"This is a David and Goliath battle — kids and parents up against a multi-billion dollar tech industry that is profiting off of harming our children," Sara Austin, founder and CEO of Children First Canada, told reporters.

Advocates praise move to ban social media use among youths

Child advocates are praising the Manitoba government for announcing its intention to ban the use of social media and artificial intelligence chatbots for youths.

Premier Wab Kinew told a crowd at a party event Saturday night the NDP government will move to restrict children from using social media accounts and artificial intelligence chatbots. The proposal is intended to protect kids from technology platforms that he says hurt their development.

Details on the plan are scant, like the age limit he is considering or how a ban would be enforced. He did not speak to reporters after his speech and was not available for comment Sunday.

Kinew’s director of communications, Amy Tuckett-McGimpsey, said the premier will likely speak more about the idea in the coming days.

Manitoba Métis president rebukes AFN chief over call for withdrawal of treaty

OTTAWA - The president of the Manitoba Métis Federation is accusing the Assembly of First Nations of misleading people about legislation that would codify the federation's right to self-government.

On Thursday, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak took aim at a first-of-its-kind treaty between the federal government and the Manitoba Métis Federation, which came up for debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Woodhouse Nepinak said in a media statement the legislation threatens to create a hierarchy of rights, with First Nations at the bottom.

“This piece of legislation must not proceed until First Nations voices’ are heard and our rights are respected, protected and upheld,” Woodhouse Nepinak wrote, saying Bill C-21 was developed without consultations with First Nations, despite it having implications for First Nations lands in Manitoba "and beyond."

Manitoba crypto companies say provincial plans would put them out of business

WINNIPEG - Manitoba's plan to charge cryptocurrency operations higher electricity rates and curtail power at peak times will drive businesses under, officials with two companies told a legislature committee.

"If this goes through, our business goes bankrupt and a lot of families will be impacted," Guildo Theriault, co-founder and chief executive officer of Gator Mining, told a committee hearing Wednesday night.

The government has introduced two bills in the legislature that are aimed at controlling the growing demand on Crown-owned Manitoba Hydro's electrical grid.

One bill would charge cryptocurrency operations and data centres up to 100 per cent higher rates for electricity. The other would allow Manitoba Hydro to temporarily reduce power to cryptocurrency operators at peak times in order to ensure stability of the grid.

Where did political ethics go?

Somewhere along the line, politicians have learned that they can lie with impunity. Not just being misleading or dissembling or answering questions evasively, but outright lying.

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon addresses United Nations forum on Indigenous rights

OTTAWA - Gov. Gen. Mary Simon told the opening of the United Nations permanent forum on Indigenous issues Monday that Canada is making progress on improving the lives of Indigenous Peoples, even if that progress is slow.

"Countries like Canada made a promise that life for Indigenous Peoples would improve, and in many ways in Canada it is improving," Simon said, citing Canada's adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, better known as UNDRIP.

"I have witnessed progress and a growing awareness among Canadians through national and regional efforts toward reconciliation. Reconciliation is transforming our understanding of history and building new relations within our society."

Those relationships are being tested in at least one province. British Columbia Premier David Eby's government briefly proposed suspending key parts of a provincial law based on the UN declaration after courts cited it in rulings against his government.

In praise of the deliberately slower lane

Before I begin this story, I should first confess that I once suffered from a serious affliction — that nasty urban disease known as road rage.

Former chief psychiatrist legally challenges Manitoba’s detox detention laws

Manitoba’s former chief psychiatrist is challenging the constitutionality of a controversial law allowing the province to incarcerate intoxicated people for up to 72 hours, claiming that it will harm those suffering from mental illness or disabilities.

Dr. Jim Simm, an outspoken critic of the Protective Detention and Care of Intoxicated Persons Act, said in an exclusive interview on Sunday that he is seeking leave from the Court of King’s Bench to challenge the law violates provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“We’re talking about human beings who are suffering,” Simm said. “They may be acting badly but to be putting them in solitary confinement — it’s just wrong.”

As it stands now, the legislation allows someone who appears intoxicated to be held for 24 hours at a “detention location,” and then held for up to 72 additional hours at a “preventative care centre.”

First Nations say Eby backs down again, now seeks joint path on B.C. Indigenous law

VICTORIA - British Columbia Premier David Eby has backed down again on the pausing of key parts of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, scrapping plans to table a suspension bill this legislative session.

The premier’s office says in a brief statement that it "can confirm that the government will not be introducing legislation on DRIPA during this session."

Instead, it says Eby will hold a press conference Monday to outline next steps.

A draft document provided by a First Nations source says the government now hopes to work with First Nations to come up with a joint approach to DRIPA, under a framework for negotiations.

Former minister Catherine McKenna blasts the heads of Canadian oil companies

MONTRÉAL - Former environment minister Catherine McKenna says the leaders of Canada's oil industry are figures close to American President Donald Trump who are "taking us for fools" and putting both the economy and environment at risk.

Canada's official greenhouse gas inventory was published last week. It showed that in 2024, oil and gas production was the only sector in the country to have increased its greenhouse gas emissions.

"In Canada, we expect, Canadians expect everyone to step up and do their parts. But instead, we have oil and gas, which is largely foreign-owned, largely U.S.-owned, who aren't doing their part. All they're doing is increasing our emissions and demanding subsidies," McKenna said in an interview while at Montreal's climate summit last week.

She adds that oil companies are "demanding that Canadian taxpayers pay the bill for cleaning up the pollution they cause and building pipelines they won’t risk their own money on."

Crossing the floor: crossing your voters?

If dictatorships are a one-way street, then democracies at least promise two-way traffic, so the saying goes. But what if the two-way traffic involves crossing the floor? Does that undermine democracy?

Manitoba puts up $4 million to protect Seal River watershed

Six years after a coalition of four northern Manitoba First Nations banded together to conserve the province’s last major undammed river, the Seal River watershed is “on the cusp” of permanent protection.

On Friday, the Seal River Watershed Alliance and the provincial and federal governments released a joint proposal to designate the 50,000-square-kilometre ecosystem — one of the world’s largest intact watersheds — as an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area.

“This announcement is an absolutely historic moment in time where we have all different levels of government (and) … the nations coming together to preserve some of the most beautiful areas in the world,” Manitoba Environment Minister Mike Moyes said Friday.

“I am so proud to be part of a government that is moving forward on this historic agreement that is going to protect seven per cent of Manitoba.”

Phasing out of door-to-door mail delivery sinks in for Winnipeggers

Canada Post said Thursday it plans to convert about four million addresses to community mailboxes over the next five years, beginning with 136,000 in late 2026 and early 2027.

Boeing commits $36M for Winnipeg projects

Canada’s next Air Force planes will be built with the help of a burgeoning workforce: robots.

Dozens protest outside legislature over expiring federal work permits

For three days, Harpreet Singh Sandhu has stood outside the Manitoba Legislative Building, calling for an extension of soon-to-expire federal work permits.

AI content should be labelled, heritage committee says

OTTAWA - The government should require that content generated by artificial intelligence be clearly labelled, a House of Commons committee said in a new report.

The members of Parliament on the committee are calling for standardized labels for AI content that are visible and that the public can understand. They say the requirement should apply to all relevant sectors, including digital platforms and broadcasters.

This would "promote transparency, maintain public trust and preserve the integrity of Canada’s information and cultural ecosystem," the report said.

It called on the government to establish "a framework governing the systematic and easily identifiable labelling of content created with the assistance of artificial intelligence, including through the use of metadata, digital watermarks or other robust technical solutions."

First Nations chiefs call for inquiry into RCMP after CBC report on surveillance

OTTAWA - First Nations leaders called on the RCMP to apologize and demanded a federal inquiry Thursday after CBC reported the police service spied on Indigenous political leaders in the 1960s and beyond.

CBC Indigenous uncovered some 6,000 pages of internal RCMP documents that indicate the RCMP was monitoring Indigenous political activity as early as 1968.

The CBC report said police targeted future national chiefs Noel Starblanket, David Ahenakew, Georges Erasmus and Phil Fontaine. CBC Indigenous reported that Ovide Mercredi, who also went on to serve as national chief, was mentioned in the files.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said the RCMP should apologize directly to community members, on their own territories, by the end of the year for the "Native extremism" program.

U.S. leads spike in applications for Canadian citizenship by descent

OTTAWA - Interest in Canadian citizenship by descent among citizens in a handful of countries — especially the United States — surged after the federal government passed a new law clarifying the rules.

C-3, which took effect on Dec. 15, 2025, allows someone born outside Canada before that date to a Canadian parent who also was born outside Canada to file a citizenship claim. Anyone born or adopted on or after Dec. 15, 2025 can make a claim as long as the parent, who was also born or adopted abroad, spent at least three years in Canada before their child's birth or adoption.

The law was drafted and passed in response to a 2023 Ontario Superior Court order that found a law on citizenship by descent passed by Stephen Harper's government was unconstitutional.

That Harper-era law said Canadians who were born abroad could only pass down their citizenship if their children were born in Canada.

Province boosts CFS funding by $29M

The Manitoba government has earmarked an additional $29.2 million to bolster supports for children, youth and families in the child welfare system, but critics say it isn’t enough.

‘Desperately missed’ victims honoured as B.C. marks 10 years of toxic drug emergency

VICTORIA -

Paula Beardy said her grandson Sheldon Beardy was a good kid.

He would have turned 28 on Monday. But his mother died last year, and after attending her memorial service in August, Sheldon also died of a drug overdose.

Paula Beardy said Sheldon used to stay with her a lot and she misses his happy smile.

NDP pushing for ban on AI surveillance pricing as Lewis makes Parliament Hill debut

OTTAWA - The NDP is expected to introduce a motion on Wednesday calling on the government to ban a practice known as surveillance pricing that New Democrats say is unfair to consumers.

The text of the motion describes the practice as companies using a customer's personal data, like search history or how long they stay on a web page, to increase prices both in store and online.

NDP Leader Avi Lewis said Monday examples of this can include a parent with a sick baby being charged a higher price for a thermometer or medicine based on internet search history.

"This means that two different people could pay two different prices for the exact same product in the same store or on the same website on the day. It's unfair, it's a ripoff, and it's downright creepy. And it's time to put a stop to it," Lewis said.