Rise in female chiefs ‘a beautiful resurgence’

BRANDON — One month after Birdtail Sioux First Nation member Tréchelle Bunn was elected chief of her community, she was described on the Matriarch Movement podcast as a woman “who truly embodies what this movement is all about.”

“At just 25 years old, Tréchelle is making history while balancing law school, community leadership and national advocacy,” wrote podcast host and founder Shayla Oulette Stonechild. “Her journey reminds us that the next generation isn’t just preparing to lead — they are leading.”

Bunn was the first woman and youngest person to be elected chief of the First Nation in western Manitoba. It was a historic moment in her community and part of a larger story of the changing role of women in First Nations today.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak noted earlier this year that a record number of female chiefs — 164 — were leading First Nations across the country.

Stopping AI ‘slop shots’ in modern politics

Welcome to the new frontier of AI campaign advertising. It is real, even if the content it produces is not.

Designated encampments worth second look

Winnipeg city councillor Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre) continues to champion the idea of authorized, designated homeless encampments despite getting no support from her colleagues on city council or the provincial government. That’s too bad, because her idea has merit.

Reducing homelessness and all of the collateral problems it represents is a pressing issue for the city and the provincial NDP government. To that end, both levels of government have taken steps to address the problem, with differing results.

The province has taken the lead with Your Way Home, a program to provide permanent housing for the homeless with “wraparound” social and health services. Your Way Home has made some progress but there is evidence the size of Winnipeg’s homeless population is growing faster than the program can house it.

At the same time, the city passed a bylaw to clear homeless encampments. To date, it has forcibly cleared some 60 encampments, containing hundreds of residents.

Pill, bills, budgetary aches

We’re a nation of drug users. Well, not those drugs.

Rather, many Canadians have their health supported by pharmaceutical medications prescribed by a physician.

In our universal health-care system, medication can come with a big additional cost.

The federal government introduced a national pharmacare program in 2024. Manitoba was among the first to sign on, partly leading to its Enhanced Pharmacare Program, which now offers birth control, diabetes and a few other medications at no cost to Manitobans.

How Canada can continue to lead on news policy

As a proud Dane, I have long admired the warm relations and respect between my country and our close, like-minded friends in Canada.

At the end of the Second World War, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted to stop the Red Army’s westward advance. The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was sent to do the job. Canadian troops encountered the Red Army in Wismar, located on Germany’s Baltic coast. The Canadians effectively blocked a Soviet advance into the Kingdom of Denmark — while that was long ago, it will never be forgotten.

We share a 3,000 km border, which has not been without controversy, but the issue has always been based on good humour and friendship. From 1973 to 2022, we “fought” over Hans Island, which is located between Ellesmere Island and Greenland and measures just 1.2 square kilometres. We were, however, able to resolve the dispute not with weapons, but with whiskey.

For many years, I was CEO of JP/Politiken Media Group, one of the largest media companies in the Nordics. As the employer of 3,000 people, I had a responsibility to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Danish news media ecosystem. Now, as CEO of WAN-IFRA (World Association of News Publishers), that responsibility is global, and it is one I take very seriously.

Manitoba appoints Canada’s first judge of reconciliation

The Manitoba government has appointed provincial court Judge Jerilee Ryle as associate chief judge of reconciliation, the first appointment of its kind in Canada.

Ryle perfect choice for Manitoba’s first associate chief judge for reconciliation

Judge Jerilee Ryle is more qualified than the majority of Manitoba judges on the issue of how to best serve Indigenous peoples in Manitoba’s justice system.

Inuit could pursue foreign partners if relationship with Ottawa sours: ITK leader

OTTAWA - Canada's national Inuit organization is calling on the federal government to be better partners, saying Canada must respect Inuit rights to governance and self-determination.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami wrapped up a two-day Arctic sovereignty conference in Ottawa on Friday.

In a statement following the summit, ITK says it firmly rejects what it calls "outdated, colonial approaches to Arctic policy that repeat Canada’s past mistakes of marginalizing" Inuit.

"We call on the federal government to partner with Inuit in advancing a more ambitious vision for its Arctic territory by prioritizing improved coordination with Inuit rights holders in decision-making, and the investments in the infrastructure and services needed to create prosperity and bring the entirety of Inuit Nunangat into the rest of the country," ITK said in a statement.

Kinew’s political brand appears unstoppable

If Manitoba’s Progressive Conservatives were hoping Premier Wab Kinew’s popularity would fade midway through his first term, the latest polling numbers offer little encouragement.

In fact, there are growing signs the Manitoba NDP may be positioning itself for a lengthy stay in government, one that could resemble the long stretches of governing enjoyed by former NDP premiers Gary Doer and Greg Selinger from 1999 to 2016, or former Progressive Conservative premier Gary Filmon from 1988 to 1999.

That may seem like a bold prediction less than three years into the NDP’s first term in office. Politics can change quickly. Governments make mistakes. Economic conditions shift. Scandals can emerge. Voters get restless.

However, at some point, it becomes difficult to ignore what the numbers tell us.

Ottawa adding $5.4B for child care; provinces, advocates had warned progress at risk

The federal government is giving provinces and territories an additional $5.4 billion over two years for the national $10-a-day child-care program, money the minister is framing as stabilizing the program.

The program that started rolling out across the country in 2021 set ambitious targets for reducing the fees parents pay and creating hundreds of thousands of new spaces by this year, but those targets have not yet been met in many jurisdictions.

Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu said Friday in an interview that she has heard the provinces' calls for more federal money, as many struggle to reduce fees, add spaces and recruit and retain enough early childhood educators in the face of rising costs and demand.

"Certainly, money has been part of the challenge," Hajdu said ahead of a meeting with provincial and territorial ministers.

Kinew not swayed by PM’s support for silica sand mining project

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s high-profile support for a proposed silica sand mining project in Manitoba this week didn’t move the needle at all for Premier Wab Kinew.

“I work for the people of eastern Manitoba, not for the Davos crowd,” Kinew told a local radio station Thursday. “We’re going to continue to put the drinking water and the priorities of the people who live in this province first.”

Carney, attending a summit of G7 leaders in France Wednesday, issued a statement hailing an investment partnership between Sio Silica, a Canadian company, and Germany’s RCT Solutions on the contentious and not yet approved project that would extract sand from a large area in the RM of Springfield east of Winnipeg and turn it into solar panels. Area residents have expressed concern that the process could impact the aquifer that provides drinking water for thousands.

Sio Silica’s president issued a statement Wednesday saying the company is pleased to have its mining project recognized by the Carney government on the world stage.

Flooded-out Interlake farmers call for government action on neglected watershed drainage system

Guiding his side-by-side vehicle over a narrow trail separating hundreds of acres of flooded fields in this rural Manitoba municipality Thursday, local farmer Brian Boonstra said there is little hope of saving his crops.

Poll finds NDP much more popular than when elected

Support for Premier Wab Kinew and the New Democratic Party remains steady, while Obby Khan and the Progressive Conservative official Opposition are heading into the summer on a bit of a backslide, new polling results show.

Probe Research’s latest omnibus poll for June shows overall support for the NDP remains steady at 55 per cent, while the Tories have slipped to 32 per cent support — starting the legislature’s summer break in a slightly weaker position than when the last session began in March.

The results reflect the ongoing honeymoon for the New Democrats, who took power in October 2023 with 45 per cent support and have surged in popularity over more than two years. The Tories, meanwhile, entered the election cycle with 42 per cent support and have lost ground every step of the way since.

“We keep watching these numbers, wondering when the (NDP) bubble might burst — because it has to burst at some point, that’s politics — but it just doesn’t seem to happen. They seem to be just riding this incredible wave of political capital,” Probe Research partner Mary Agnes Welch said Wednesday.

Cellphones silenced at LRSD board meetings to keep trustees ‘engaged’

LOUIS Riel School Division trustees are subject to new rules, which are not unlike the ones for 17,000 students in their division in southeast Winnipeg, that dictate when they can use their personal devices.

The board of trustees approved multiple updates to its code of conduct this month. Among them is the explicit requirement every member must use divisional laptops at their public meetings.

“We look at our iPhones, laptops, emails and text messages — that’s life nowadays, but trustees don’t only need to be present in the physical sense. We need to be engaged,” longtime trustee Chris Sigurdson told a recent meeting, speaking in French.

Sigurdson raised the topic on June 2, one week after the nine-seat board received a letter from a resident expressing concerns about tech-related distractions in the boardroom at 50 Monterey Rd.

Smith tells First Nations chiefs to ‘check themselves’ over treason accusation

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Wednesday that a group of Indigenous chiefs need to "check themselves," after they accused her of potential treasonous activity for calling a separation vote.

The Assembly of Treaty Chiefs, representing First Nations across Alberta, unanimously voted this week to ask RCMP to look into whether the province's fall referendum amounts to criminal treason by Smith and her United Conservative Party.

The chiefs, in a news release, said organizing the vote is an intentional treaty violation and that Smith's government is ignoring serious risks to Canada's sovereignty.

They said that when their treaties were signed, the RCMP — then the North West Mounted Police — committed to ensuring the safety of First Nations, while the Crown promised goodwill in exchange for sharing the land.

Conservative MP’s bill on intimate partner violence becomes law

OTTAWA - Canada will take a harder stance on intimate partner violence after a Conservative MP’s private member’s bill became law Wednesday.

The Criminal Code will soon be updated to allow the killer of an intimate partner to be charged with first-degree murder regardless of whether the act was premeditated.

Bill C-225, which received royal assent in Parliament on Wednesday, will make first-degree murder applicable to killings that happen as part of a pattern of coercive or controlling conduct.

Frank Caputo, Conservative MP for Kamloops-Thomson-Nicola, put forward the private member's bill.

Carney’s support for controversial sand mine sparks criticism

Prime Minister Mark Carney has thrown his support behind the controversial Sio Silica sand mine in southeast Manitoba before its second, scaled-down proposal has been licensed.

At the G7 leaders summit Wednesday, Carney trumpeted the memorandum of understanding signed by Manitoba’s Sio Silica and solar technology manufacturer RCT Solutions in Germany to extract sand from a large area east of Winnipeg and turn it into solar panels.

In a news readout, Carney said he met with Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the summit in France and that both welcomed “new investment partnerships” between the two nations, including two in Manitoba to “support a high-purity silica project, to extract 99.9 per cent-plus pure silica sand, highly valued for manufacturing solar panels and semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, and defence-related technologies.”

It said the second partnership involves Sio Silica, RCT Solutions and the Southern Chiefs Organization to build a fully integrated solar manufacturing hub in Manitoba.

Safety board report says doomed Titan submersible operated with no federal oversight

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says a submersible that imploded on its way to the Titanic wreck was operating in Canada without any oversight, and it is asking federal authorities to look closer at uncertified vessels.

Committee majority recommends against MAID for mental illness, four senators object

OTTAWA - A parliamentary committee is calling on the federal government to indefinitely exclude people with mental illness from becoming eligible for medical assistance in dying, after a process that some of the committee's members decried as flawed and biased.

Conservative and Liberal members of Parliament on the committee co-signed that single recommendation in a report Wednesday that included a number of dissenting opinions.

People with a mental illness as their sole underlying condition are set to become eligible to apply for medical assistance in dying, or MAID, next March.

The committee of MPs and senators was tasked with studying whether the country is ready for that to happen.

Mayor’s cabinet signs off on proposed 110-acre neighbourhood on Dugald Road

A major development proposes to create nearly 3,000 homes, ample commercial space and a possible school at a mostly vacant industrial park.

The Waters Urban Village project would transform 110 acres (44.5 hectares) of employment and industrial land at 1390 and 1470 Dugald Road in the St. Boniface Industrial Park by creating 2,946 residential units, a commercial town centre, a central park and six business park buildings, pending final city council approval.

The largest high-rise residential buildings would be close to key Winnipeg Transit routes.

The substantial addition of infill homes and businesses fits well with the city’s goals to make use of existing infrastructure, said a proponent of the project.

‘Fundamentally broken’ support system failing Manitobans with disabilities, scathing report concludes

Manitoba’s disability support system is “fundamentally broken” and routinely fails people as they transition into adulthood, according to a damning new report that calls for a sweeping overhaul of provincial services.

Justice minister says he will review MAID committee testimony before making decision

OTTAWA - Justice Minister Sean Fraser says he will take time over the summer to review the work of a committee tasked with determining whether Canada is ready to allow people with mental illness access to medically assisted dying.

Committee co-chair Marcus Powlowski said last week the report would be presented to Parliament on Wednesday to ensure it's in the government's hands before the House of Commons takes its summer break.

Fraser said Tuesday he will consider more than the committee's conclusions and recommendations.

"Importantly to me, I'm also going to be reviewing the witness testimony upon which those recommendations were based," he said.