Manitoba law meant to aid survivors of child sexual abuse imagery has never been put to the test

A Manitoba law meant to provide financial support to survivors of child sexual abuse that was recorded and distributed online has never once been used in its 15 years of existence, the Free Press has learned.

Minister says changes to Nutrition North program set to roll out in the fall

OTTAWA - Northern Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand says changes to the Nutrition North program are coming this fall, but they won't be limited to subsidies to reduce the cost of food in the North.

Instead, Chartrand said, the federal government is looking at all options to help reduce food insecurity in the region, including strengthening local supply chains and supporting harvesters.

Nutrition North provides money to retailers to help bring down the high cost of groceries in 124 communities. Some retailers have been accused of not applying the full subsidy to the items they sell.

The federal government says it has been reviewing the program to strengthen the food economy, restructure governance and reform subsidies.

Get a little culture: Folklorama celebrates 55 years

You never have to wait more than a week in Winnipeg during summer for the next major festival.

And you never have to venture very far during Folklorama, which begins Sunday, before running into another church, community centre or curling club humming with music, food and cultural dress.

In sheer scale, it’s the most transformative festival Winnipeg has.

Featuring 45 pavilions this year, its 55th, Folklorama launched Wednesday at a news conference at The Forks. (The official kickoff is Sunday at Assiniboine Park’s Lyric Theatre and Field at 4 p.m., the only chance to see all the Pavilion Ambassadors in one spot.) The event also featured a citizen ceremony for several dozen new Canadians, presided over by Canada’s first Métis citizenship judge, Suzanne Carrière.

City’s crisis-response proposal makes too much sense for province to ignore

For years, Winnipeg has asked police officers to do a job they were never trained to do.

Somewhere along the way, police became the city’s default response to virtually every crisis, not just those involving crime. Mental-health emergencies, addiction episodes, wellness checks and people in emotional distress increasingly landed on the desks of police dispatchers because there simply wasn’t another option available around the clock.

That has placed an enormous burden on police resources while often failing to provide vulnerable people with the help they actually need.

The city’s proposal to create a “fourth crisis response pathway” is a long-overdue recognition that public safety doesn’t always require a badge and a gun. Sometimes it requires a social worker, a mental-health professional or someone with specialized crisis-intervention training.

Ancient mummy DNA provides scientific evidence that colonization brought smallpox to the Americas

NEW YORK (AP) — Ancient mummy DNA recovered in Chile has yielded the firmest evidence yet that European colonization brought smallpox to the Americas.

Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases in human history before it was eradicated in 1980, largely thanks to vaccination. For centuries, the virus had killed about one-third of the people it infected and left most survivors with deep and sometimes disfiguring scars.

Outbreaks struck Asia and Europe and eventually spread to the Americas, where colonial writings, administrative records and missionary reports documented how it killed millions and devastated Indigenous populations who had never been exposed to the virus.

Now there's scientific evidence for the spread: An analysis of Chilean mummies provides the strongest genetic link yet to the virus as it existed outside of the Americas, and provides a better picture of how it reached remote populations through colonization, said geneticist Shigeki Nakagome with Trinity College Dublin.

Measure twice… and try not to hurt yourself

Changing speeds. It’s a hard thing to do. A hard thing, because it’s also an admission that the speed you once had just isn’t really there anymore.

Some robotaxis approved to operate without steering wheels and losing the brake pedal could be next

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal regulators are clearing the way for robotaxis to operate without manual controls like steering wheels or eventually even brake pedals as the rules start to catch up to the evolving technology.

Amazon’s fully autonomous Zoox vehicles got approval Thursday to begin charging customers for rides in the specially designed cars that feature four inward-facing seats once they secure state and local approval. Zoox has already been offering free rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco since last year. At least a couple people were waiting at most stops Thursday afternoon for rides up and down the Vegas strip aboard one of the distinctive boxy-shaped vehicles.

“It’s kind of scary at first, but when I just got used to it, it’s really cool and chilling. I really liked the music and how you can adjust the temperature,” Chloe Huu from Ann Arbor, Michigan, said after taking a ride in a Zoox Thursday. But the projected wait time for the ride kept changing, which made it hard to plan.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also proposed a rule last month to allow robotaxis to operate without brake pedals, but that proposal is still pending. Administrator Jonathan Morrison said his agency wants to update the regulations to fit these fully autonomous vehicles while still acting as the “cop on the beat to make sure that this is being done right.”

Poll suggests some Liberal supporters concerned about climate policy are leaning NDP

OTTAWA - A new online poll from the Angus Reid Institute suggests that one in six 2025 Liberal voters now say they would support the NDP.

The pollster found that half of these voters cite climate change as the issue that concerns them most. The poll also found that these voters are three times more likely to be concerned about inequality, with 34 per cent of red-orange switchers listing it as a priority compared to 10 per cent who are staying in the Liberal tent.

Angus Reid reports that 21 per cent of respondents nationally say that climate change is a top concern, an increase from the 14 per cent recorded just four months ago. The pollster said that wildfire season is a "stark reminder" of the threat climate change poses in a write up of its findings.

NDP Leader Avi Lewis told The Canadian Press Tuesday that he's been hearing from Liberals in Montreal are now looking to support his party.

Ottawa opening exports office as part of strategy to diversify trade

OTTAWA - The federal government is opening a new strategic exports office as part of its plan to diversify trade.

The office, announced in Budget 2025, will be housed under Global Affairs Canada and will be tasked with removing trade irritants, lifting market access barriers and addressing infrastructure gaps.

The government says the office will help Canada secure international business opportunities in sectors that include aerospace, defence, infrastructure and energy.

International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu told a press conference Thursday the office will help Canada's "best companies win the biggest contracts in the toughest markets around the world."

New Indigenous languages commissioner says her job is to support incoming leadership

OTTAWA - The interim head of the Indigenous languages commission, which is now facing a federal audit, says her job is to support new leadership to ensure a fresh start for the institution.

Candice St-Aubin, who left her job as a senior federal public servant to take on the interim commissioner's role, said on social media it's deeply meaningful work that "asks much of the mind, heart and spirit."

"I do not approach this work as temporary. The responsibility to support the preservation, revitalization, and strengthening of Indigenous languages in Canada does not pause while institutional processes continue," St-Aubin wrote.

"While the formal process will determine the leadership team that follows, I see my role as helping support those who will welcome them and ensuring they can begin their work on a strong and respectful foundation."

Shoppers flock to the frozen aisle as fresh vegetable prices soar: Loblaw

Consumers are looking for savings in the frozen vegetable aisle at Loblaw banners as prices of fresh produce have spiked in recent months.

"It's more than (five percentage points) growth in the frozen veg in our hard discount banner," Loblaw Cos. Ltd. chief executive Per Bank told analysts on a second-quarter earnings call on Thursday. Hard discount largely refers to the company's No Frills and Maxi chains.

"Those customers who shop there, they are trying to mitigate their inflation."

Affordability continues to drive buying decisions as consumers contend with high gasoline and food prices.

Between prices and a diarrhea-causing parasite, lettuce is causing hard times at some restaurants

It’s been a choppy year for restaurants that lean into lettuce.

Lettuce prices rose sharply in the first half of 2026 due to hot weather in Arizona, where about one-third of America’s lettuce is grown. Now, restaurants are dealing with the fallout from a cyclospora outbreak linked to shredded lettuce that has sickened thousands of Americans.

Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, said Thursday that Taco Bell's U.S. same-store sales are down 2% so far in the July-September period due to customers' concerns over the outbreak. That compares to a 7% same-store sales increase in the April-June period.

Federal health officials first tied the diarrhea-causing outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said customers in Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania were also affected.

Gaps in homecare leave Winnipeg man in perilous situation

Tom Landy fears he won’t live long enough to receive adequate homecare.

The 49-year-old Winnipegger has spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative disease, and requires 24-7 homecare, but gaps in his care leave him sitting in one spot for hours and lately he’s developed bed sores.

Landy was approved for around-the-clock care in June 2025, but staffing issues and an investigation into a homecare worker’s workplace injury have left him without help for periods of time throughout the day and forced his 76-year-old father to fill in.

“This is what they’re here for, to take care of me, and now it feels like I’m a burden,” he said from his home in the Maples.

Real-life heroes commended for bravery

In a situation where other people might freeze, Preston Houle took action.

He recalls being at Delta Beach on July 18, 2025 when he heard a cry for help from a mom in distress, her two-year-old son in the water unresponsive after going under while playing with friends.

“I leaped into action,” Houle said. “I grabbed the young man, took him back to the shore, performed CPR until he kind of came back, and waited until EMS got there.”

Houle’s wife, too shy to speak, agreed that her husband was the kind of man you could rely on.

Report draws link between missing Indigenous women and trafficking across Canada

A new analysis of online sex advertisements featuring Indigenous women has identified cross-country corridors that are highly indicative of sex trafficking, while revealing insight into how women and girls are exploited in Winnipeg.

Temporary foreign workers rally to stay

Close to 100 temporary foreign workers, mainly from China, whose time in Canada is running out, rallied on the steps of the Manitoba legislature Tuesday to raise awareness of their situation.

They arrived in Manitoba before the federal government cut immigration levels — when international students and temporary foreign workers had a shot at becoming permanent residents if they met the requirements to stay, said Ruby Lu.

“We come here for a few years and we work for a few years, pay taxes. Some of us are already bought a house,” said Lu, whose work permit expires at the end of the year.

“So if our (permit) expires, we don’t know what to do,” she said in front of demonstrators holding signs with messages including “we love Manitoba” and “bring back TPP” — the temporary public policy used by the Manitoba provincial nominee program to support open work permits and prioritize permanent residency for select candidates.

Ceremony heralds growth of active transportation network in city’s north

North Winnipeg’s active transportation network is set to grow, with construction planned for a nearly two-kilometre extension of the Northwest Hydro Corridor Multi-Use Path later this summer.

A few community members, Mayor Scott Gillingham and other representatives from the city and province and Trails Manitoba gathered Tuesday at Daylan Marshall Gate Park for a groundbreaking ceremony marking the start of Phase 2 of the project, which will extend the existing multi-use pathway north and south.

The original Northwest Hydro Corridor opened in 2023 and runs nearly three kilometres along the hydro right-of-way from Leila Avenue to Church Avenue, just west of McPhillips Street.

Phase 2 will extend the corridor north from Leila Avenue to the greenspace behind Daylan Marshall Gate and south from Church Avenue to Selkirk Avenue. Once completed, the pathway will stretch approximately 4.2 kilometres in length.

Canadian Copper expands New Brunswick mining operation, over 100 jobs expected

FREDERICTON - The New Brunswick government says a mineral development company is expanding its mining operations in the province's northeast.

The government says Canadian Copper Inc. has acquired the defunct Caribou Mine site through the receivership proceedings of previous owner Trevali Mining Ltd.

The province on Tuesday said the company plans to use the site's mill to process copper, zinc and other minerals that could be mined from the nearby Murray Brook mine site, which it already owns.

Canadian Copper will also take over care and maintenance of the Caribou Mine, along with the associated costs, according to a news release from the provincial government.