Lawyers for Quebec government tell Supreme Court that Bill 21 is legitimate

OTTAWA - The Quebec government is urging the Supreme Court of Canada to uphold a controversial secularism law, arguing that the Constitution allows the province to override the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The case revolves around the law, adopted in 2019, that banned some public sector workers from wearing religious symbols on the job, including judges, police officers and teachers.

Quebec pre-emptively used its powers to override the Charter when it adopted the law, and the court challenge could have implications for how other provinces handle similar cases.

The federal and provincial governments can override the Charter if they invoke what is known as the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution.

Pride festivals seek federal $3M as corporations pull back support amid DEI backlash

OTTAWA - Pride festivals are seeking $3 million annually from Ottawa to fill a funding gap left by corporations pulling back funding amid a backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

"We are seeing corporate sponsors pull back their investment into Pride. This can be for a multitude of reasons — DEI pullbacks, the tariffs," said Joseph Hoang, a director with Vancouver Pride.

"They are not coming to the table at the level that they used to be. This is why we are asking the federal government for this new funding."

He was speaking Tuesday on Parliament Hill, joined by other executives who are seeking $9 million over three years to help 200 festivals maintain their operations. They are asking for funding to pay artists and logistics costs, separate from rising security expenditures.

Liberals to debate age restrictions on social media, AI chatbots

OTTAWA - Age restrictions on using social media accounts and AI chatbots are among the topics up for debate when Liberal party grassroots gather next month for their national convention.

There are 24 different policy resolutions that are on the agenda when party rank-and-file meet in Montreal for their convention April 9 through 11.

Two of them try to tackle ongoing concerns about the impact of social media and artificial intelligence on children and youth.

One resolution from Quebec calls for anyone under the age of 16 to be banned from accessing "all AI chatbots and other potentially harmful forms of AI interaction," such as ChatGPT.

Canadian sport system ‘underfunded and unsafe,’ commission urges Ottawa to step up

Canadian sport needs an overhaul, and it starts with the federal government.

That was the conclusion of the Future of Sport in Canada Commission's final report released Tuesday.

The Canadian sport system is broken, fragmented and unsustainable, said Lise Maisonneuve, a former chief justice of the Ontario court of justice, who headed the commission.

The report issued 98 calls to action for phased-in change over five years, but starting immediately.

Provincial budget includes free transit passes for youths in Winnipeg, three other cities

Manitoba’s NDP government will make it more affordable for youths as young as 12 to get to school, jobs and activities with free transit passes.

The autism strategy gap is already here

In Winnipeg classrooms, the autism strategy gap is not theoretical. It is visible every day.

Quebec’s Bill 21 lands in the Supreme Court, with notwithstanding clause in spotlight

MONTREAL - A legal challenge to Quebec's secularism law, known as Bill 21, will be heard at the Supreme Court of Canada beginning Monday, and legal experts say whatever the eventual ruling, it will have a profound effect on constitutional law in Canada.

The highly anticipated high court challenge to Bill 21 has been years in the making, but legal debate is likely to focus primarily on Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the provision known as the “notwithstanding clause," which shields legislation from most court challenges over violations of fundamental rights.

François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec government pre-emptively invoked the provision into the law passed in June 2019.

The Quebec law, known as Act respecting the laicity of the state, sets out the principles of secularism in the province. Among its most controversial measures is the prohibition of civil servants who are considered in positions of power — such as police officers, teachers and judges — from wearing religious symbols at work.

Maritime historical groups earn UNESCO recognition for Black Loyalist archive

HALIFAX - Detailed ledgers, business receipts and church records from Black Loyalists in the 1780s and onward are more than just rich historical texts to Andrea Davis.

“This is a part of my history… it means so much to us as a community,” she said in an interview Saturday.

Davis is an eighth generation descendant of Black people who left the United States for Nova Scotia at the end of the American Revolution, siding with the British. The Black Loyalists were offered land, protection and freedom, but they were not given the rations, assistance or fertile land they were promised.

“My ancestors, they are a group of people that were not meant to survive, but they did. And so to be here to represent the Black Loyalists and my ancestors is extremely rewarding,” she said.

Province still working on Crown corporation legislation to get Port of Churchill expansion going, Kinew says

Legislation needed to begin the work of turning the Port of Churchill into a national export hub with the potential to transform Manitoba’s economy is still being hammered out, says Premier Wab Kinew.

The act, to create the Manitoba Crown-Indigenous Corp., is still being written, which meant it was not among the more than 40 bills introduced by the NDP before Wednesday’s deadline for passage before the legislative session’s summer recess.

The government promised the legislation in November’s throne speech.

“The corporation has been set up,” the premier said Thursday at an unrelated event.

Most vulnerable will pay the most for federal budget cuts

As the federal government reallocates funds to deal with a $78 billion deficit, the loss of prison librarian positions threatens to undermine rehabilitation efforts for marginalized inmates.

‘A life-or-death program’: non-profit’s successful at-risk youth training awaits Ottawa funding decision

An inner-city non-profit that helps at-risk youth in Winnipeg has warned it will be forced to end an employment and training program March 31 unless government funding comes through.

A year of federal funding is set to run out for Resource Assistance for Youth’s Level Up! program, which has educated and secured work experience for more than 350 young people since 2020.

“We’re in that moment where no level of government has said, ‘We want to continue to support this going forward,’” said Kate Sjoberg, RaY’s executive director.

The paid training program involves six weeks of in-class learning and 12 weeks of work experience with a local employer. Participants also receive housing and mental-health and other supports.

Finance minister’s budget preview focuses on little feet

Manitoba’s finance minister — who had bags of children’s shoes in tow — announced Friday that families and affordability measures would feature prominently in Tuesday’s budget.

Adrien Sala went to Linwood Child Centre, his children’s former daycare, to announce that 2,000 childcare spaces would open within the province.

Tuesday’s budget will also include a 2.9 per cent increase to wages paid to early childhood educators as of September.

“We’re looking to make sure that we invest in you guys, our next generation,” Sala said, steps from children at Linwood.

‘Wake up people’: mom says proposed drunk-driving law falls short

The mother of a designated driver who was killed by an impaired driver says proposed legislation to prohibit school bus and semi drivers from having booze in their system doesn’t go far enough.

“Wake up people, it should be zero for everybody,” said Karen Reimer, whose daughter Jordyn Reimer, 24, was killed in 2022 after being hit by a pickup travelling at 108 kilometres an hour on a residential street in Transcona.

Under Bill 31 (The Highway Traffic Amendment Act), drivers of class 1 to 4 vehicles — including semi-truck and bus operators — would not be allowed to have any alcohol in their blood.

Reimer told a legislative committee Wednesday laws aren’t moving the needle when it comes to impaired driving deaths and injuries. The province had 13 impaired driving fatalities in 2025, the same number that it had a decade ago. Last year, there were 62 serious injuries, an increase from 60 in 2015, as reported by Manitoba Public Insurance.

Minister promises $14M more for corrections after union complains about overcrowding

Manitoba’s justice minister has promised more resources after the union for corrections officers said Friday inmate overcrowding and chronic short staffing is putting lives at risk.

“Help’s on the way, our government has focused on hiring up as many new corrections officers as we can and we want to continue to build on that work,” Matt Wiebe told reporters.

Wiebe revealed the province will spend an additional $14 million on corrections in the 2026-27 budget, which is to be unveiled next week.

On Friday, the union released the results of a survey of corrections officers and other jail staff that suggests there’s widespread discontent and concern about inmate overcrowding and short staffing.

Family says teen re-victimized by school’s lax response after reporting sexual assault

With its soft lighting and cosy couches, the classroom hangout at the River East-Transcona School Division high school is supposed to be a safe space for students to decompress.

But that changed one Monday in January.

That day, after the supervising teacher had left the room, a teenage girl says she was sitting on the floor with her back against a love seat when a much larger male student sat down on the cushion directly behind her, boxing her in between his knees.

She said he reached over and forced his hands beneath her shirt, grabbing her breasts for several minutes while she froze and did not speak or move.

Shopping bill is a good pre-emptive strike

On the face of it, it looks like a solution desperately hunting for a problem.

But that’s sometimes the way proactive legislation looks.

As first salvos go, Manitoba’s Bill 49 should probably be viewed not an effort not to deal with an imaginary problem, but one being put in place to ensure that the problem doesn’t arrive.

What the bill does is to add individual pricing to the province’s collection of improper business practices.

PUB locks in Hydro rate increases, warns more on way

Manitoba Hydro customers can expect further upward pressure in rates as the Public Utilities Board has finalized a four per cent general rate increase — effective Jan. 1, 2026 — and approved general revenue increases of 3.5 per cent Jan. 1, 2027, and three per cent Jan. 1, 2028.

The board noted short-term financial pressure due to severe drought conditions, according to a news release late Thursday.

In 2025, water flows approached the second-lowest levels in 112 years, the release said.

Between filing the application in March 2025 and oral hearings in November, Hydro’s outloook worsened by more than $600 million — from a projected net income of $218 million to a projected loss of $409 million, the board’s release said.

Local TV stations ask regulator to force Meta to pay for posting some news content

OTTAWA - Some local and independent TV stations are asking the federal broadcast regulator to start a process to force Meta to pay for allowing some news content on Facebook and Instagram.

They say that despite Meta’s move in 2023 to pull news from its platforms in response to the Online News Act, some content remains available.

The Online News Act requires Meta and Google to compensate media outlets for displaying their content. While Meta pulled news from its platforms in response and has not been required to pay news outlets, Google has been making payments under the act.

In a submission to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the stations cite examples of online posts that included news content, such as text and screenshots of stories and video clips.

Poilievre pitches Canadian kindness on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ podcast

OTTAWA - Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre laughed off a conspiracy theory about Justin Trudeau in the opening minutes of his 2.5-hour sit-down with podcaster Joe Rogan, where he made a case for Canadians being America's nice-guy neighbours.

While talking about his early interest in politics, Poilievre mentioned that he read a biography of Fidel Castro.

"Justin's dad!" Rogan interjected.

The Conservative leader shook his head and laughed, "No, no, not Justin's dad," adding later that it's "a hell of a (conspiracy theory). I don't think it's a true one though."

Health minister accuses Tory leader of ‘derogatory, disgusting’ bigotry uttered in the legislative chamber

Decorum unravelled at the Manitoba legislature this week with accusations of bigotry and “behaviour that’s out of control.”

Province intends to create registry of Manitoba-certified Red Seal tradespeople

The Manitoba government plans to create an online public registry of certified tradespeople.