Proposed social-media ban for Manitoba children gets likes, thumbs-down

Mia Danyluk had a YouTube channel before she reached double digits. She was 11 years old when she signed up for Snapchat. In Grade 9, she joined Instagram.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was on social media that she learned about Manitoba’s plan to ban children and youth from accessing these platforms.

The irony was not lost on her — a 16-year-old who was raised in Winnipeg and on the borderless online world.

“We’re seeing younger and younger kids grow up with an iPad instead of toys in their hands. If we’re exposing kids to screens, we need to teach them online safety,” the high schooler said.

Winnipeg photographer captures striking stills that market major motion pictures

Eric Zachanowich is the most famous photographer you’ve probably never heard of.

He’s worked with Tinseltown heavyweights such as the late Robert Redford, Ralph Fiennes, Laura Linney, Woody Harrelson and Anya Taylor-Joy, and even appeared in Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson’s wrestling biopic The Smashing Machine, disguised as, you guessed it, a photographer.

“It was for one of the opening scenes so I could shoot Dwayne Johnson walking to the ring. I made the final cut of the movie — although it’s hard to place me — and also got a spectacular photo that was used heavily during marketing,” says Zachanowich, 32.

More often than not, he operates as a silent observer on the sets of cinema blockbusters and prestige television dramas alike, his lens capturing the world’s biggest A-listers at their most vulnerable and intense moments.

City gets to the bottom of how deep hole formed in boulevard

A Winnipeg woman’s fall into a deep hole in a boulevard Saturday night marked a first in the city’s recent history, sparking an investigation to determine its cause and prevent it from being repeated.

Christine Keilback told the Free Press she was on her way home from a movie when she suddenly fell shoulders-deep into the hole across the street from her Wolseley home.

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service came to the rescue and helped her return to solid ground. The city placed barricades around the large hole.

On Tuesday, Mayor Scott Gillingham said this is the only such incident he’s aware of since being elected to city council in 2014 as St. James councillor. He was elected mayor in 2022.

Kinew threatens billion-dollar fines for tech giants ignoring social-media ban for youths

Manitoba may impose billion-dollar fines on tech companies that violate a proposed ban on social media and AI chatbots for youths under the age 16.

Elon Musk takes stand in trial vs. Sam Altman that could reshape AI’s future

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, world's richest man and OpenAI cofounder, took the stand Tuesday in a high-stakes trial revolving around a bitter feud with his former friend Sam Altman that could reshape the future development of artificial intelligence.

His testimony at the Oakland, California, federal courthouse kicked off a legal drama that is expected to brim with intrigue and potentially embarrassing details about the two tech moguls. Musk filed the lawsuit against Altman and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, along with Microsoft over its investments in OpenAI, in 2024.

“Fundamentally, I think they’re going to try to make this lawsuit ... very complicated, but it’s actually very simple,” Musk said. “Which is that it's not OK to steal a charity.”

The nine-person jury was selected Monday and the trial is scheduled to take three weeks.

Move over Big Mac: McDonald’s Canada taps beverage craze with new drinks line-up

TORONTO - Your next drink order from McDonald's Canada may come in a frosty cup all but glowing from its fluorescence or brimming with a layer of foam thick enough to give you a milk moustache.

The fast-food giant is reimagining the drink menu you grew up with in favour of a new roster launching May 5. It will keep the classics — pop, coffee, tea, milk and juice — but position crafted sodas, fruity refreshers and foamy iced coffees as new, permanent cornerstones.

The focus on fruit, froth and carbonation is meant to tap into a category the chain considers to be the Canadian quick-service industry's fastest growing and turn McDonald's into a restaurant people think of for more than Big Macs, fries or nuggets.

"We want to become a beverage destination," McDonald's Canada president Annemarie Swijtink told The Canadian Press.

‘What a stupid situation’ as woman plunges into boulevard hole

Talk about a hole in one.

Christine Keilback was getting home from the movie theatre Saturday night when she suddenly fell shoulders-deep into a hole in the boulevard across the street from her home in Winnipeg’s Wolseley neighbourhood.

Keilback tried to boost herself out but she couldn’t get a foothold because the dirt crumbled away.

The 58 year old, who serves as the executive director at a local non-profit, says she was not injured and immediately found the situation humorous.

Funding to boost early childhood educators’ pay helps some, not others, longtime workers in field lament

Although the federal and provincial governments are boosting early childhood educator wages by more than $14 million this year, some who’ve been working in the field a long time are feeling somewhat overlooked.

Youth social media ban likely to begin in schools, provincial education minister says

The first phase of a provincial social media ban for youth will likely start with Manitoba schools, which already restrict cellphone use, Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said Monday.

Lots of accolades, little details in Kinew’s proposed social media ban

Premier Wab Kinew made national news headlines on the weekend when he promised to institute a ban on social media use by youth. Although Ottawa and several other provinces have promised similar efforts, the industrious Manitoba premier beat them to the punch and the accolades.

Manitoba education minister says social media ban could start in schools

WINNIPEG - Manitoba could turn to classrooms as the first place to ban children from using social media and artificial intelligence chatbots, and one young advocate is urging the province to work with those it's aiming to protect.

Tracy Schmidt, the province's education minister, says Manitobans can expect to see the ban's first phase rolled out in schools, likening it to when the government first banned cellphones in classrooms in 2024.

"This is very early days. A step like this is going to certainly take legislative and regulatory processes," Schmidt said at an unrelated event Monday.

"But I know that something we're talking about right away is how we can roll this out in schools as soon as possible."

Structural issues forced Grant’s Old Mill, built in 1973, to shut down

Grant’s Old Mill, a longtime city landmark, is closed due to structural problems as the Manitoba Métis Federation looks to discuss its future with Winnipeg’s mayor.

MMF minister Will Gooden is a descendant of Métis leader Cuthbert Grant, the man commemorated by the replica mill along Sturgeon Creek. He said MMF president David Chartrand wants to set up a meeting with Mayor Scott Gillingham.

“It’s an opportunity now to see what we can make happen here,” Gooden said Monday. “It is a replica, but it is still very significant, not just for the Red River Métis, but also for that part of town.”

The water mill, located at 2777 Portage Ave., was constructed in 1973 as a City of Winnipeg centennial project and was officially opened by then-premier Ed Schreyer in 1975. It is a replica of the mill constructed by Grant in 1829.

Teacher spots in demand after certification changes

Universities are being flooded with applications from aspiring teachers now that it’s easier to become certified in Manitoba.

Following years of struggle to fill available seats, faculties of education are scaling up after-degree programs this fall to meet newfound demand.

The University of Manitoba is adding 105 undergraduate seats in September, with a specific focus on graduating more kindergarten-to-Grade 8 teachers.

“We need to get more fully trained teachers out in the field to address the provincial needs. We can’t have classrooms without teachers,” education dean Jan Stewart said.

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.

Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman head to court in high-stakes showdown over AI

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Technology tycoons Elon Musk and Sam Altman are poised to face off in a high-stakes trial revolving around the alleged betrayal, deceit and unbridled ambition that blurred the bickering billionaires' once-shared vision for the development of artificial intelligence.

The trial, which started Monday with jury selection, centers on the 2015 birth of ChatGPT maker OpenAI as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.

The trial's outcome could sway the balance of power in AI — breakthrough technology that is increasingly being feared as a potential job killer and an existential threat to humanity's survival.

Those perceived risks are among the reasons that Musk, the world's richest person, cites for filing an August 2024 lawsuit that will now be decided by a jury and U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California.

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.

‘Desperation’ drives women to private menopause care

Some women are paying private clinics up to four times the amount the public health system pays doctors for menopause primary-care visits patients can get free.

One Winnipeg woman said “desperation” drove her to make an appointment with a private clinic that charges $385 for an initial assessment by a nurse practitioner.

Erika, who did not want her last name published, said for the past year she’s suffered worsening menopause-like symptoms, including night sweats, brain fog and heavy menstrual periods. The single mother who works two jobs and turns 40 this summer said her family doctor and another primary-care physician she went to both told her she’s too young for menopause.

Neither, evidently, assessed her for perimenopause, the transition leading to menopause. During that time — which can begin when a woman is in her 30s and last for several years — hormone levels fluctuate and produce, in many cases, the symptoms Erika described.

Motherless Day embraces those grieving parental loss

There’s a collage in Katrina Zborowsky’s bedroom that is greater than the sum of its parts. The collection of fragments is tangible evidence that Zborowsky, 32, has successfully navigated yet another Mother’s Day after the loss of her mother Doris, 57, in a cycling accident in September 2020.

Show your local independent bookstore some love

For avid readers and independent booksellers, Saturday might feel a bit like Christmas.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ‘deeply sorry’ over Tumbler Ridge shooting where 8 were killed

The head of an artificial intelligence company that admitted it knew of the troubling behaviour of a woman before she killed eight and wounded dozens more in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., has apologized for not going to police.

A letter from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, shared Friday on B.C. Premier David Eby's social media, said that while he knows words can never be enough, he believes "an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreplaceable loss the community has suffered."

He said in the letter addressed to the community of Tumbler Ridge that the pain it has endured is unimaginable and he has thought about them often.

“I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June," his letter says.

AI smart glasses will help visually impaired runners take on the London Marathon

LONDON (AP) — Running past Buckingham Palace during training, Tilly Dowler is closing in on a goal she once thought out of reach.

Dowler, who has Stargardt disease and says she has about 10% useful vision, only began running last year, starting with a couch to 5K program before building up to marathon distance. She is now preparing to run the London Marathon with her boyfriend as her guide, using AI powered Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses to help her navigate and track her progress.

“They are AI assisted,” she said. “While running, I can ask for live cues, such as what landmarks are around me and how far I have run.”

She said the glasses allow her to combine audio feedback with guidance from her running partner.