Harmony Aesthetics banks on cryogenic storage, preservation, future utilization of hair follicle stem cells

Staff members at Harmony Aesthetics invite you to put yourself on ice.

The boutique clinic in Winnipeg’s Charleswood neighbourhood, which specializes in skincare and aesthetic treatments, now offers stem cell banking. Clients who have their stem cells collected can use them for skincare treatments at the clinic and keep them preserved for future cell-based treatments.

Brian Foster and Rukhsana Foster, the husband-and-wife duo who lead Harmony, say they’re the first clinic in Manitoba to offer this form of stem cell banking. They partnered with Acorn Biolabs, a bio-technology company in Toronto, to offer the service.

“It’s so exciting to me to have your stem cells on file permanently, cryogenically preserved … because I will never be younger and healthier than I was yesterday,” said Brian Foster. “So having that yesterday version of me on file can be incredibly beneficial in the future when new technologies are developed.”

Liberals dismiss call for law to ensure political fibs and flubs don’t eclipse facts

OTTAWA - The Liberal government has dismissed a Toronto man's proposal to keep politicians honest in an age of misinformation, saying there are already several ways to fight falsehoods.

Federico Sanchez initiated an electronic petition to the House of Commons to propose legislation that would help correct the record when members of Parliament stray from the truth intentionally or simply because they are ill-informed.

Sanchez said he was "very upset" by the lack of federal interest in his pitch.

"It made me feel like they didn't take it seriously," he said in an interview. "If they don't think that there's a problem, then I think we're going to have a lot worse days ahead."

Prison overcrowding has no simple fix

Rarely, if ever, does government respond so quickly to a demand for more money. On March 20, the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union said that overcrowding in provincial jails was causing mayhem and putting their members at risk.

‘Massive operation’: Canadian driller, shipper enlisted to help tap Greenland oil

CALGARY -

The promotional video shows a small creek trickling through a mossy patch in an otherwise brown, barren landscape, icebergs looming just offshore.

A petroleum engineer dips a hand into the stream, then takes a sniff.

"It smells like crude oil," he says, grinning at the camera.

Boy Kibble craze a soul-destroying approach to maxxing meal plans

Sometimes, when I am filling my dog’s bowl with tiny brown triangles, I have the (depressing) thought: I wish there was such a thing as human kibble, so I didn’t have to work out what to feed myself all the time. Pre-portioned, perfectly macro-balanced sustenance, so I can just eat my People Chow and move on with my day.

Racing pigeons, airports and compassion

It may be there is such a thing as too much precaution.

A family in Winnipeg’s West End was left disappointed this week when they were informed they have to take down their backyard aviary, which is home to 12 racing pigeons. The pigeons are beloved companions of one of the children in the family who is autistic and non-verbal, and for whom the pigeons provide important emotional support.

It is a bit of a saga. The coop was constructed about one year ago by Ronald Lobo, who was not aware he needed a permit for the birds. After being visited by a bylaw officer following up on complaints, the family sought and obtained approval for the structure.

Neighbours appealed the decision, citing sanitary and other concerns, but the decision not to allow the family to keep the coop came partly as a result of concerns raised by the Winnipeg Airport Authority as well. The family’s home falls within the bounds of the WAA’s airport vicinity protection area, and the airport was concerned the birds’ flights to and from the property could pose a risk.

Spying on Indigenous peoples fuels mistrust, threatens Canada’s economy and society

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association published thousands of pages in 2019 that it had fought for years to be released by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The heavily redacted documents, the association said, show Canada’s spy agency spent years illegally conducting surveillance and documenting peaceful Indigenous protesters and community environmental organizations that opposed the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project. They include the Dogwood Initiative, ForestEthics (now Stand.earth), Sierra Club BC, Leadnow.ca, and the #IdleNoMore movement.

This discovery followed a report by two researchers in 2016, who found that from 2014 to 2015, the RCMP operated project SITKA, which involved a list of more than 300 political activists in the country — most of whom were Indigenous — with 89 marked as “threats” to national security.

If this wasn’t enough, access to information requests by activists found that from 2009 to 2011, Gitxsan professor and child advocate Cindy Blackstock was monitored by officials at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and the justice department – an act that Canada’s privacy commissioner later called a violation of her privacy rights.

Province making up chaotic, inadequate child-care ‘plan’ as it goes along

The Manitoba government can point to a lot of ink spilled — and a lot of money committed — on child care over the past few years. Fees have come down to $10 a day. New spaces have been promised. Workforce strategies have been rolled out.

On paper, it all sounds like progress.

But a scathing new report from Manitoba’s auditor general makes one thing painfully clear: when it comes to actually delivering child-care spaces where and when families need them, the province has badly dropped the ball.

And both the former Progressive Conservative government and the current NDP one are equally to blame.