Federal Court awards OCN $27M, 62 years after construction of hydro dam

The Federal Court has ordered Ottawa pay Opaskwayak Cree Nation $27 million over damages suffered due to the construction of the Grand Rapids hydro dam in the 1960s.

In a decision dated Sept. 3, Federal Court Justice Sébastien Grammond says the federal government had a fiduciary duty to protect the community from the impacts of the dam.

“When the Crown exercises a discretionary power over an Indigenous interest, it has a fiduciary duty and it must exercise the discretion in the best interests of the Indigenous group,” the ruling said. “Canada breached its fiduciary duty to OCN because it approved the (project) without ensuring that the impacts of the Grand Rapids dam on OCN’s traditional way of life were mitigated or compensated.”

The First Nation took the federal government to court in February over impacts on the community after the dam, located about 145 kilometres southeast of Opaskwayak Cree Nation, was installed on the Saskatchewan River in 1964. The case was heard over 14 days in a judge-alone trial in Winnipeg.

Microsoft commits to sweeping AI privacy rules for students. Will other tech giants follow?

Millions of students every day turn to AI chatbots for help with schoolwork, emotional support and personal advice — often unaware of where their conversations and other personal information end up.

How that data is used — and schools' role in protecting it — is a growing concern for educators, parents and kids as artificial intelligence becomes a ubiquitous part of the school day, embedded in many of the classroom tools students are required to use.

As the school year started, the country's two largest school districts, New York City and Los Angeles, announced they were putting the brakes on student use of AI for one year, as they study how to best incorporate the technology into education.

In response to a growing AI and screentime backlash, Microsoft announced last week it had agreed to adopt guardrails and privacy standards for its AI in schools, as negotiated with the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers union.

Everlayer seeks to add new chapter to textile growth story

Sanjay Agarwal wants people to think twice about towels.

“You wouldn’t consider towels as a fashion item, but we do,” he said. “We think it can add a lot of colour and personality to the bathroom. So that is what we wish to present to our customers.”

The Winnipeg businessman is the founder and president at Everlayer, which sells luxury bedding, bath linens and home decor. The products are designed in Canada and manufactured in Europe.

Last week, the two-year-old company launched its newest collection of towels, with designs and colour compositions that Agarwal said approach the towel “less like a commodity and more like a considered piece of textile design.”

Northern style: WAG-Qaumajuq, CBC series partner for runway show

Award-winning TV series North of North by Inuit filmmakers Stacey Aglok MacDonald (Qanurli, The Grizzlies) and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Angry Inuk, The Grizzlies) made a return to the small screen last week on APTN, CBC Gem and CBC TV with its second season première.

North of North is partnering with the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq to celebrate the way it has propelled authentic northern fashion into the global spotlight at the gallery’s special edition of Crafted on the Catwalk Tuesday night, featuring fashion and design from Manitoba, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Nunatsiavut and Nunavik.

Arnaquq-Baril and series stars Anna Lambe and Zorga Qaunaq spoke to the Free Press ahead of Tuesday’s catwalk show.

Free Press: The fashion in Season 1 set the bar so high. We’re barely into Season 2 and have already seen so many covetable, stunning looks. What story do the clothes tell the viewers?

Finding fulfilment as canines’ companion

Tim Campbell loves dogs. He loves them so much that as soon he retired from his job at Panasonic Canada in early 2024 he began volunteering in earnest at the Winnipeg Humane Society (WHS).

He’d started his voluntary career five years prior with another local dog rescue organization. The work was rewarding, he says but the call-outs were unpredictable.

He was looking for a voluntary role which had a bit more structure to it, something he could build a routine around, while spending time with the animals he truly adores.

“In the summer, I’m there two mornings a week, and when the weather turns a little colder, I’m there anywhere from three to four mornings, depending on what’s going on,” Campbell, 59, explains.

Global customers crave texture, challenging companies to make crispier, gooier, chewier foods

Texture is having a crunchy, gooey moment in the food and beverage industry.

For many people, the way a menu item or packaged snack feels in the mouth has become as big a draw as flavor, although consumers don't always recognize the part texture plays in their cravings for crispier takeout, frothier coffees and juicier candies, according to industry experts.

The importance of “mouthfeel,” a food science term for oral sensation, has inspired new products like Starbucks’ Aerocano, an air-whipped iced espresso; PowerCrunch, a waferlike protein bar; and Trolli Gummi Pops, which are frozen but still soft and chewy.

“Texture drives consumer behavior. It plays a key emotional role in the eating experience, shaping satisfaction, perception and repeat interest,” Ingredion, an Illinois-based ingredient provider, said in a recent report.

Port of Churchill expansion could chase belugas away, U of M researcher says

As plans to expand the Port of Churchill into a four-season trade corridor gathers momentum, a University of Manitoba researcher has published a report on what ship traffic could mean for the beluga whales that gather in the Churchill River estuary each summer.

Veronica Coppolaro said more vessels in the waterways bring a risk that belugas will stop using the estuary for migration, which would impact the ecological landscape, tourism and communities that rely on the animals for food and cultural purposes.

“There are studies showing that (noises) change the way they swim, they change the way (the whales) are vocalizing, they change their main activity, and so this (expansion) can have consequences at different levels,” she said.

The Churchill river estuary is a marine habitat where the Churchill River empties into Hudson Bay. During the summer months belugas gather in the area to feed and give birth.

Where have all the Atlantic hurricanes gone? El Nino might bring record slow storm season

The Atlantic is quiet — record quiet — this hurricane season thanks to an enormous El Nino that crushes storms before they get going.

No Atlantic hurricanes have formed yet this year and none are likely to form for at least another week, even though this would normally be the peak of the season, according to the National Hurricane Center. Only five relatively weak and brief tropical storms have spun up this season.

On Saturday, 2026 set a record for the longest a season has begun without a storm that has reached winds of 74 mph (119 kph) to qualify as a hurricane — at least in the satellite era, said Nick Novella, a meteorologist at the government's Weather Prediction Center. Before the 1950s there were a few years where no hurricanes were recorded this late in the season, but meteorologists don't trust those records because ocean monitoring wasn't complete.

Overall hurricane activity using a measurement that factors in the number of storms, their strength and how long they last is also at a post-1950 record low, according to Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach. Storm activity in the Atlantic is only 7% of normal for this time of year.

La facture grimpe mais Ottawa répond présent

‘Préserver ce lieu, ce n’est pas seulement préserver un bâtiment. C’est préserver notre mémoire. C’est transmettre notre histoire.” C’est sur ces mots que Ginette Lavack, députée fédérale de Saint-Boniface-Saint-Vital a annoncé un nouvel investissement fédéral de 400 000 $ au nom du ministre Marc Miller pour le Musée de Saint-Boniface.

Un beau cadeau d’anniversaire pour les 175 ans de l’édifice abritant le musée. Désigné lieu historique national par le gouvernement du Canada en 1958, celui-ci est le plus vieux bâtiment de Winnipeg et, selon le musée, la plus grande structure en rondins de chêne d’Amérique du Nord. Construit entre 1846 et 1851, il était à l’origine le couvent des Sœurs Grises, arrivées à Saint-Boniface depuis le Québec en 1844.

“Depuis 1851, cet édifice a connu plusieurs vies. Il a été un couvent, un hôpital et une école. Il a accueilli, protégé, soigné et enseigné. Il témoigne de l’histoire complexe de Saint-Boniface, de la nation Métisse de la rivière Rouge et de la francophonie,” énumère la députée fédérale, également secrétaire parlementaire de la ministre des Services aux Autochtones.

Un héritage historique et culturel également souligné par Robert Loiselle, député provincial de Saint-Boniface, qui évoque un bâtiment issu d’une époque où une grande partie de la population du Manitoba était francophone. Il a d’ailleurs tenu à rappeler le lien particulier qu’il entretient avec le site : “Sur une touche personnelle, c’est le 4 juin 1892 qu’une nouveau-née fut trouvée dans un petit panier sur le perron des Sœurs Grises : Joséphine Perron, nommée par les Sœurs Grises. Connue sous le nom de Joséphine Payette, mon arrière-grand-mère fut rapidement adoptée par sa famille Payette le lendemain.”

Winnipeg-produced podcast Careers Under Construction keeps rolling for Pederson Group

It could have been the CEO’s corner office or a boardroom, but instead it’s a media production studio.

Eight storeys above the corner of Portage Avenue and Main Street, the 300-square-foot room in the Pederson Group’s headquarters at 201 Portage Ave. is outfitted with comfortable chairs, a plant and black drapes that block out natural light and control the acoustics.

There are three video cameras, two computers, a few microphones and a variety of portable video lights. All told, the equipment is worth more than $70,000.

It’s here where two of the Winnipeg recruitment firm’s five staff members — Justis Pederson, president and CEO, and Cassie Bezan, director of creative communications — produce Careers Under Construction, a weekly, hour-long podcast featuring interviews Pederson conducts with Manitoba business people.

What it means to be green… in a city beholden to the blue and gold

It’s not easy being green… if you’re a Winnipeg Blue Bombers season-ticket holder.

Dave Dech ordinarily arrives at his designated seat in Princess Auto Stadium fully decked out in blue and gold. That won’t be the situation this weekend, however, when the Bombers clash with their principal Canadian Football League rival, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, in the annual, sold-out Banjo Bowl game.

“No, I’ll be in green pretty much from head to toe. People sitting around us kid me, but by now they know if it’s the Banjo Bowl, Dave’s showing up in green,” says Dech, 63, possibly the biggest Saskatchewan supporter this side of Moosomin.

Not only does the married father of two grown sons have 25 Roughriders jerseys hanging in his closet — at press time, he was still mulling over which one to throw on for Saturday’s tilt — there is a main-floor lair in his and his wife Patti’s Westwood abode you’ll probably want to avoid if you suffer from prasinophobia — a fear of the colour green.

Well-preserved tooth from Pacific mastodon found in a creek in San Francisco Bay Area

Brigid Lynch was working along a wooded creek in a mountainous part of the San Francisco Bay Area when something that didn't look like the rocks she'd been studying caught her eye. It turned out to be the fossilized tooth of a Pacific mastodon.

“I keep joking it wasn’t hard to find,” Lynch, a geomorphologist at Balance Hydrologics, said Friday. “It was just sitting there in the middle of the creek, halfway in, half out of the water.”

Lynch made the discovery earlier this year while working on a habitat restoration project for the threatened California red-legged frog in a Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District preserve in San Mateo County. The public land management agency that preserves over 70,000 acres of land in the Santa Cruz Mountains region announced the find this week. The fossil has been donated to Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability.

“It’s in great condition,” said Chrissy Garcia, curator and manager of Doerr School of Sustainability’s specimen collections. “So we’ve got both the crown and the root of the fossil. You can even see root canal.”

Pokemon thieves clear out collectibles shop

Terri Settle loved watching children walk into her collectibles shop to hunt for their favourite Pokemon cards.

After the latest break in stripped her shelves of much of the inventory, she’s not sure she’ll get to see it again.

Thieves broke into Terri’s Trinkets and Toys on Tuesday evening, punching through a grate and then the store’s bathroom wall to reach the storefront.

They made off with about $6,000 worth of merchandise, including all of the store’s Pokemon cards — about 7,000 of them — along with toys, Lego, jewelry, video games, a debit machine and personal laptop. They even took her vacuum cleaner.

Artist’s inspired work brings Red River Métis story back to Portage and Main

Jennine Krauchi calls them the “grandmothers.” “They speak to you very silently. You never hear a word, but they speak,” Krauchi says, referring to the antique pieces of Métis needlework she’s carefully studied for years. But there are few precedents for her latest art project: a 85-foot-wide by 32-foot-high chain curtain of Métis needlework that drapes over the historic Bank of Montreal’s neoclassical facade.

Ottawa renews commitment, provides funding, for Lake Winnipeg watershed protection

The federal government has renewed its memorandum of understanding with the province to protect the Lake Winnipeg watershed and is contributing more than $2 million for several projects to protect the basin.

Ottawa and the province have agreed to extend the current MOU for an additional five-year term, to August 21, 2031. The understanding has been in place since 2010.

“Lake Winnipeg is not only an environmental treasure, it’s also an economic treasure. But we also know that Lake Winnipeg is under pressure. Too many nutrients, particularly phosphorus, are entering the lake, contributing to harmful algae blooms and affecting water quality and ecosystem health,” said Terry Duguid, MP for Winnipeg South.

Lake Winnipeg is one of the largest freshwater bodies in the world and its watershed spans parts of four provinces and four American states. It is vulnerable to high levels of nutrients caused by agricultural runoff, sewage and other contaminants that create large algae blooms and affect fisheries.

Girl Scouts’ first cookies for dogs will go on sale in January

Man’s best friend is getting some love from the Girl Scouts.

Girl Scouts of the USA said Tuesday its first cookies for dogs will go on sale in January.

The blueberry muffin-flavored cookies were developed with Bark, a New York-based seller of dog treats and toys. The cookies, dubbed Patch Pals, will only be sold online.

Also joining the Girl Scout cookie lineup in January are Sparkables, the organization’s first allergy-friendly cookie. The crunchy oatmeal cookie, which has chocolate chips and colored sprinkles, was developed with New Jersey-based Partake Foods.

Gym, health pilot program rolls out as Manitoba children go back to school

Phys-ed is on the minds of many Manitobans — seven-year-old Ethan Minski included — as roughly 200,000 kindergarten-to-Grade 12 students start a new school year.

Winter to wait on the sidelines as El Nino extends fall: The Weather Network outlook

It's shaping up to be a mild fall across much of Canada, The Weather Network's forecast suggests, with a potentially historic El Nino expected to prolong the season and delay winter's arrival.

September and October will still bring the usual swings between warm spells and bursts of chilly, stormy weather, the network's three-month outlook says. But the balance is expected to trend milder and, in many regions, drier than normal as the season progresses, said senior meteorologist Doug Gillham.

"Winter is probably going to wait on the sidelines for a while," he said in an interview.

The main reason is El Nino, the climate phenomenon tied to shifting patches of warm water in the Pacific Ocean, Gillham said.

NSL Winnipeg gets a home sweet home

For years, Desiree Scott has tried to imagine what women’s professional soccer would look like in her hometown.

Her vision is now a whole lot clearer.

The Northern Super League revealed Tuesday that $8.5 million is being invested into the Ralph Cantafio Soccer Complex, which will become the official home of Winnipeg’s recently announced expansion club.

Work is already underway to transform the facility into a 5,000-seat modular, purpose-built stadium that will be ready for kickoff next spring.

Online harms now top threat to Canadian children, new report says

OTTAWA - Online harms now constitute the top threat facing children in Canada, ahead of bullying, poverty and child abuse, Children First Canada said Tuesday in a new report.

It is the first time online harms have been in the top 10 list of threats, the report said.

"We've seen how now it's permeating the lives of every kid in Canada, from birth all the way through adolescence. This is no longer a conversation just about teens on social media," said Sara Austin, CEO of Children First Canada.

"In the past year alone, we've seen particularly the rise of AI-amplified harms," she added.

Home court, high hopes as Canada chases wheelchair basketball gold

OTTAWA - Canada’s men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams hope home-court advantage can help end a lengthy world championship drought.

Canada will host the IWBF Wheelchair Basketball World Championships for the first time since 2014, with all games being played in Ottawa. Action gets underway Wednesday, with the championship games set for Sept. 19.

This marks the first time Canada has hosted the men’s and women’s world championships together, with 17 countries represented by 15 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams.

Iran was scheduled to compete in the men’s tournament but withdrew over the weekend because of visa issues affecting four team members, including the head coach and an assistant coach.

Food Allergy Canada calls for laws requiring schools to stock epinephrine devices

TORONTO - Last May, six-year-old Kofi Berkley started getting itchy and developing bumps on his skin while he was playing with his friends at recess.

The recess supervisor brought the Grade 1 student, who didn't have any known allergies, to his Edmonton elementary school's office.

Principal Joanne Harle and an administrative assistant applied ice on his skin to try to soothe the irritation.

"Truly to goodness within — it felt like an hour but it wasn't, it was probably maybe a minute — you could see his eyes swell. His top lip grew. He was gasping to breathe," said Harle.