Advocate urges feds to update equity act, settle class action with Black employees

OTTAWA - An advocate is urging the federal government to update equity legislation for Black employees and to drop its fight against a discrimination lawsuit that has cost more than $15 million so far.

Nicholas Marcus Thompson, president and CEO of the Black Class Action Secretariat, told The Canadian Press that changes to Canada's Employment Equity Act are long overdue.

In 2023, former labour minister Seamus O'Regan announced two new designated groups would be created under the act for Black and LGBTQ+ people.

The act requires that federally regulated employers, including the public service, take steps to eliminate barriers and maintain proportional representation in the workplace for members of designated groups.

Ukrainian emergency visa holders expected to return after war: immigration department

OTTAWA - Canada's immigration department says it still expects Ukrainians who fled the war with Russia to return to their home country once the conflict ends.

That's in spite of comments from Immigration Minister Lena Diab, who recently acknowledged that many Ukrainians who came to Canada on temporary visas are here to stay.

"Canada and the people that made the decision felt that it would be temporary, which is why they were called temporary programs. We now know it's not temporary," Diab said in a Jan. 26 interview with The Canadian Press.

"They've been here for X number of years, and for the most part, people are working, they're building a life, they have children and so on. So I understand that."

A look at Ramadan and how Muslims observe the holy month

CAIRO (AP) — Observant Muslims the world over will soon be united in a ritual of daily fasting from dawn to sunset as the Islamic holy month of Ramadan starts. For Muslims, it’s a time for increased worship, religious reflection and charity. Socially, it often brings families and friends together in festive gatherings around meals to break their fast.

Ramadan is followed by the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

First day of Ramadan expected around Feb. 18-19

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar; the month cycles through the seasons.

Modern, historic letters showcase love in dangerous times

Love is in the air at Oseredok.

The Ukrainian cultural and educational centre’s current exhibition, Love Letters: A Timeless Experience, bears witness to the fraught and emotional journeys of past and present Ukrainian-Canadian couples through historical love letters, digital declarations and personal artifacts as they navigated courtship, separation and reunion.

Spanning the 20th and 21st centuries, the exhibition draws on a combination of archival material, including the cultural centre’s collection of rare wedding photographs and studio portraits, and visual installations to trace the love lives of Ukrainian-Canadians across the decades.

A letter-writing manual penned in 1913 by linguist and author F. Dojacek forms the backbone of the immersive show.

Bill aims to give MMF self-government treaty with Canada

The Manitoba Métis Federation is one step closer to having a self-government treaty with the federal government.

Federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty introduced Bill C-21 Thursday, the Red River Métis Self-Government Recognition and Implementation Treaty, which if passed would be the first self-government treaty with any Métis government in the country.

“This treaty has been 156 years in the making and represents the cherished vision of our ancestors and elders, who fought so hard to preserve our existence and keep the flame of our nationhood alive through the dark times,” MMF president David Chartrand said in a statement.

“This legislation realizes their vision and shows that the fighting spirit of the Red River Métis — Canada’s negotiation partner in Confederation and the founders of Manitoba — can never be dismissed when we stand for what we believe in.”

A mother recounts her dangerous journey across the border to escape Trump’s America

MONTREAL - At times, a 25-year old woman said the snow reached her knees as she trudged through a dark, icy forest near the Quebec border in mid-January.

With temperatures hovering around -11 C, her left hand clutched her daughter and her right held up a cellphone, as they listened to a voice transmitting instructions on which direction to go and where they needed to stop. Four other Haitian migrants were travelling with them.

“It felt like a race with time,” the woman recalled in a recent interview.

Weeks after this ordeal, the woman and her daughter are seeking asylum in Canada.

Ukrainians push for permanent residency in Canada as war with Russia grinds on

OTTAWA - Roksolana Kryshtanovych never planned on moving to Canada before Russia's war, but the invasion made it impossible for her to go home to Ukraine.

In the years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, she said, Canada has become her new home. But without a path to permanent residency, she and thousands of other Ukrainians here face an uncertain future as the war drags on.

Immigration Minister Lena Diab has acknowledged many of these visa holders are no longer here temporarily — but the government has no concrete solution yet to their plight.

Now, her government is under new pressure to open a permanent residency pathway for the nearly 300,000 Ukrainians like Kryshtanovych who came to Canada through the emergency visa program.

Newcomers to Canada take skating lessons at camp in Headingley

Abenezer Massore has newfound respect and admiration for the Olympians who are lacing up to compete in Milano Cortina.

The 15-year-old newcomer is no stranger to sports; he grew up swimming and playing soccer and basketball in South Africa.

But he said he had no idea just how challenging it would be to learn to stay upright on skates — one of his bucket list items — for the first time.

“It’s a lot harder than it looks; I have terrible balance,” Abenezer said during an outing to Camp Manitou in Headingley on Sunday.

Hampers help spread ‘Ramadan warmth’

In a small building on St. Anne’s Road, packages of dried chickpeas, dates and rose water are stuffed into cardboard boxes.

The boxes are neatly packed along an assembly line with about a dozen items before being handed off to a table of young women who wrap them in clear cellophane adorned with polka dots and seal it with a purple ribbon.

“We want to make it feel a little special and make it look nice and put together. Because we could just give them a basket, but we want to make sure it looks nice,” said volunteer wrapper Sumha Ali.

The group of 16 volunteers hope to pack 175 food hampers in just two hours. After all, there’s no time to waste: Ramadan is only two weeks away and they want to get hampers in the hands of families well before it begins.

Respect Pride participants, Winkler mayor says ahead of summer parade

The City of Winkler is distancing itself from the Pembina Valley Pride march but the community’s mayor is also asking residents to respect those taking part in the LGBTTQ+ event.

Mayor Henry Siemens said he has received “lots” of comments about the parade, scheduled to be held in Winkler for the first time this summer.

“Council and I don’t personally support all of the beliefs or ideologies of the various groups or events that might take place in Winkler, but we do support people’s individual freedom to plan and host their own events,” Siemens said in a social media post Wednesday.

“It is my sincere prayer that we, as a community, find a way to respect one another’s freedoms and pray that no one event would define who we are.”

Teen newcomers hope powerful poem opens minds

Escaping Syria as a child, Fawwaz (Ali) Al Hassan knows a thing or two about global conflict.

“I’ve gone through war, genocide, poverty, myself firsthand, and I know how bad and terrible it is for anyone, not just for people of my kind, but anyone across the world,” the 17 year old who immigrated to Canada 10 years ago said.

The Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute student co-wrote the spoken-word poem What We’re Meant to Be, along with Sami Suliman, 16, and Tobilola (Tobi) Olorunsola, 17. The trio recited it Monday at the Manitoba legislature as part of the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation’s international development week.

The teens, all newcomers to Canada, brought their own personal experiences to the poem, a journey across the globe.

Family from the Democratic Republic of Congo navigates chilly firsts alongside IRCOM supports

All Clever Ganza wants to do this winter is build a snowman.

He’s not yet had the chance, as it hasn’t been the right kind of snow — although to the eight-year-old, all snow is snow.

It’s his second winter in Winnipeg after arriving in Canada with his parents and younger brother Travor, 5, in December 2024.

Clever has acclimatized pretty quickly.

Filipino-style fried-chicken biz off to a sizzling start

Before we begin, John Tadeo wants to make it abundantly clear that Popoy’s, the tag he and his girlfriend Patricia Santiago settled on for their Filipino-style fried-chicken biz, isn’t a play on an international fried-chicken chain that bears the name of a certain, spinach-loving sailor-man.

When Tadeo was a youngster growing up in the Philippines, his paternal grandmother never called him anything but Popoy, a derivative of Popo, which is Tagalog for little boy or child. His parents continue to address him by that term of affection to this day, so last winter, when he and Santiago were tossing around potential names for their fledgling enterprise, they agreed Popoy’s Golden Chicken had a better ring to it than John’s or Patricia’s.

“I guess if somebody associated with Popeyes (Louisiana Kitchen) ever tells us we can’t call ourselves (Popoy’s), we’d probably just change it to Poy’s,” Tadeo says, standing next to Santiago in the commercial kitchen at Riverview Community Centre, where they accept pickup orders on a regular basis, usually every other weekend.

“But since Popoy is my name, I’m not sure what argument they’d have.”

U.S. directs its embassies in Western nations to scrutinize ‘mass migration’

WASHINGTON - The U.S. State Department has directed its embassies in Canada and other Western nations to scrutinize the impacts of "mass migration" — the Trump administration's latest push to reshape the geopolitics of America's longtime allies.

Last week's dispatch to embassies directed diplomats in Ottawa, New Zealand, Australia and countries in western Europe to report on the human rights implications and public safety impacts of large-scale mass migration, calling it an "existential threat to Western civilization."

In a Friday social media post shared by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the department said officials will "urge governments to take bold action and defend citizens against the threats posed by mass migration."

Officials will also report "policies that punish citizens who object to continued mass migration and document crimes and human rights abuses committed by people of a migration background," the department said.

Un programme qui ouvre la voie

À 5 ans, Éléonore découvre la natation synchronisée… dans sa langue maternelle. Grâce à la détermination de sa mère et à l’engagement de deux jeunes entraîneuses francophones, un tout nouveau programme voit le jour au club Aquatica. Une petite victoire pour la francophonie et pour l’inclusion dans le sport.

Âgée de cinq ans, la petite Éléonore se rend à la pratique de natation artistique tous les mardis après-midi. Grâce à la détermination de sa mère et de ses entraineuses, elle apprend sa discipline dans sa langue maternelle, le français.

“Elle adore danser, elle adore la musique et l’eau,” nous dit sa maman, Geneviève Roy-Wsiaki. “Ça fait des années que je me dis qu’elle adorerait la nage synchronisée.”

Le choix de l’activité s’est donc imposé naturellement. Mais avant qu’Éléonore puisse se lancer à l’eau, il fallait régler un détail.

Immigration minister extends pause on new private refugee sponsorships to 2027

OTTAWA - Immigration Minister Lena Diab has extended the pause on new applications through the Private Sponsorship for Refugees Program for another 12 months as the department works to clear its backlog.

New ministerial instructions were published in the Canada Gazette on Friday, along with a notice on the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada website.

The pause was to be lifted at the end of December but will now be in place for another year, until Dec. 31, 2026.

This pause applies to refugee sponsorships submitted by community organizations or groups of five or more individuals. These sponsors have to support the refugee for one year after they arrive or until they can support themselves, whichever comes first.

Former judge in Ukraine sacrifices career to be reunited with family in Winnipeg

Viktor Bratasyuk was walking the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court as part of an international judicial fellowship last fall. Today, the longtime Ukrainian judge is working part time at a beer vendor in St. Vital.

Senators amend legislation to make it easier to pass on First Nations status

OTTAWA - Senators have passed sweeping amendments to a bill that would simplify the transfer of First Nations status between generations, rejecting the federal government's advice to limit its scope.

Bill S-2, introduced in the Senate with support by the Liberal government, was drafted to eliminate some gender inequities in the Indian Act and allow some 6,000 people to become eligible for First Nations status.

Some senators and Indigenous community leaders said the bill didn't go far enough.

On Tuesday, senators changed the legislation to eliminate what is known as the "second-generation cutoff," opting instead for a one-parent rule that would allow First Nations status to be transferred to a child if one of their parents is enrolled.

Carré civique, le soutien générationnel

Je donne en famille consiste à lever des fonds pour l’avenir du carré civique. La particularité de ce soutien c’est qu’il implique différentes générations, notamment les plus jeunes qui peuvent parfois se sentir éloignés des sujets liés au patrimoine.

David Dandeneau tente de partager son engagement à tous et à différentes générations.

Le membre du conseil d’administration des Ami.e.s du Carré civique de Saint-Boniface (ACCSB) a eu l’idée de lever des fonds pour notamment assurer des dépenses opérationnelles et à terme préparer également le processus d’appel d’offres que s’apprête à lancer la Ville de Winnipeg.

C’est à travers l’ACCSB, qui a reçu le statut officiel d’organisme de bienfaisance et peut donc recevoir des dons depuis mars 2022, que le monde pourra donner ponctuellement pour cette campagne.

New podcast seeks to end polarization between Jews, Muslims

In the last two years, anecdotal evidence, surveys, police reports, rallies and counter- rallies have all indicated that the acrimony and distrust between the Canadian Jewish and Canadian Muslim communities has reached an all-time high.

In spite of this, a number of organizations and individuals across the country have been attempting to bridge the deep political divide between the two communities by encouraging respectful dialogue, compassionate listening and a search for common ground.

Yafa Sakkejha and Avi Finegold are two of those individuals.

Last month, Sakkejha, a Muslim Torontonian entrepreneur of Palestinian heritage, and Finegold, a Jewish Montrealer and rabbi, launched a new limited series podcast. Appropriately entitled In Good Faith, the podcast features interviews and discussions with representatives of the Muslim and Jewish communities about Israel, Palestine, the war in Gaza, and the challenges and concerns of their respective minority communities here in Canada.

How Canada can regain its measles elimination status

TORONTO - Infectious disease experts say Canada's loss of measles elimination status shows how badly investment is needed in public health, rebuilding vaccine confidence and solving the primary care crisis.

On Monday, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) revoked the measles-free status Canada has had since 1998 because an outbreak of the virus across several provinces has lasted for more than a year.

Dawn Bowdish, an immunologist and professor at McMaster University, said cuts to public health funding, the lack of a national vaccine registry and a shortage of family doctors — all while misinformation about vaccines is circulating widely — have contributed to the rise of measles.

"There's no two ways about this. This will take money — a lot of money — and a lot of investment. And it will take a lot of political will," Bowdish said

Hurrying hard for Jamaican flavours infusing West St. Paul Curling Club

WEST ST. PAUL — This month marks a full decade since Vincent Dennis opened a Caribbean-flavoured restaurant inside the West St. Paul Curling Club.

And although it could be assumed that a person who has spent that much time in the vicinity of rocks and rings would have picked up a thing or two about the roaring game by now, that doesn’t appear to be the case with the Jamaican-born owner of Tropical Thunder.

Not even close.

“I’ve been here since 2015 and I still don’t have a clue what I’m staring at,” Dennis, 52, says with a chuckle, seated at a table offering a perfect view of the 62-year-old club’s four curling sheets.