In legal dispute over ‘The View,’ ABC argues Trump administration is trying to chill free speech

NEW YORK (AP) — In a strongly worded filing, ABC accuses the Trump administration of trying to chill its constitutionally protected free speech and hinder open political discussion.

The point of contention: The popular show “The View," and whether it's subject to equal time rules.

ABC’s filing to the Federal Communications Commission, made public Friday, came in a dispute involving one ABC station in Houston, KTRK-TV. But the wording indicated the network was embarking on a broader battle with the administration.

“The Commission’s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly,” said the filing on behalf of both KTRK-TV and ABC.

Parents irked after school ditches Mother’s Day

Winnipeg families are decrying an elementary school’s decision to rebrand an annual tradition — making macaroni necklaces and other crafts for Mother’s Day — in the name of inclusion.

Grade 1 and 2 teachers at Sage Creek School informed parents this week that their children will bring home “family gifts” later this spring.

Instead of making items specifically for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, student-made creations will be distributed on May 15, the International Day of Families.

“Where is the line? What is next? At what point are you being more exclusive than inclusive?” said Ashley Dolphin, a mother of two, including a Grade 1 student at the kindergarten-to-Grade 8 school.

Foreign actors producing more false content about Alberta separatism: report

EDMONTON - Foreign actors are increasingly generating articles, podcasts and social media posts riddled with disinformation about Alberta's separatist movement, says a new report.

The report from a team of researchers, published Wednesday by the Canadian monitoring platform DisinfoWatch, says the campaigns are coming out of Russia and the United States.

It says social media influencers with millions of followers are generating the disinformation in the United States.

"This matters because influencers increasingly command more attention than traditional institutions and can move fringe narratives into mainstream political debate," the report says.

Chartrand lauds court decision as ‘victory for Red River Métis’

The president of the Manitoba Métis Federation and others have been awarded nearly $12 million in legal fees after an unfounded and unreasonable attack by the Métis National Council, a judge has ruled.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Loretta Merritt said in a 15-page decision released on Monday that she was awarding court costs of $6.02 million to MMF president David Chartrand, $1.3 million to Clement Chartier, the MNC’s former president for almost two decades, and $2.06 million to former MNC executive director Wenda Watteyne.

The judge also awarded $2.4 million in costs to several consulting firms and consultants whose reputations were damaged when they were  falsely accused by the MNC of aiding the unfounded allegations of financial impropriety.

“Mr. Chartier and president (Chartrand) have devoted their lives to advancing the interests of the Métis nation,” Merritt wrote. “Ms. Watteyne dedicated the vast majority of her career to the service of the Métis community.

Empower youth by giving them tools to stay safe online

Do you support banning kids from social media? Do you also post photos of your kids on your Facebook or Instagram?

Whenever the topic of banning social media for kids comes up, as it did again this week when Premier Wab Kinew announced that Manitoba will ban youth from using social media and AI chatbots, we run into a wee bit of cognitive dissonance among the adults.

Many of today’s young people had social media presences long before they were old enough to consent to them — not as users, but as content posted by their parents. Instagram is nearly 16 years old; the iPhone nearly 20. A lot of kids have had digital footprints since the sonogram. Their whole lives are online.

So, as young people who are already on social media transition into social media users themselves, we should, as a society, empower them to make informed decisions about how, where and if they want to show up online, not ban them from platforms they use to connect with their peers, express their creativity and learn about the world. Platforms they’ve grown up around and, in many cases, on.

One small step forward — and a challenge to take another

We live in a Manitoba where every tax-paying citizen, whether they supported searching the landfill or not, is responsible in one way or another in treating Indigenous women as human beings.

Liberals shut down committee debate on $6.6-billion IT project

OTTAWA - Opposition MPs say the Liberals used their new power as a majority government Thursday to shelve debate on calls for the government to provide documents about a $6.6 billion IT project that has gone far over budget.

While the project to modernize the systems the government uses to deliver benefits to Canadians, such as old age security, launched in 2017 with a $1.7 billion budget, the cost is now more than three times that sum.

Last week, the House of Commons human resources committee debated a Bloc Québécois motion to have the government produce documents about the project.

When the committee convened Thursday, the Liberals instead pushed forward with clause by clause consideration of an unrelated bill, without providing any notice to the rest of the committee of that plan.

Supreme Court hollows out a landmark law that had protected minority voting rights for 6 decades

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Lyndon B. Johnson knew the legislation he was about to sign was momentous, one that took courage for certain members of Congress to pass since the vote could cost them their seats.

To honor that, he took the unusual step of leaving the Oval Office and going to Capitol Hill for the signing ceremony. It was Aug. 6, 1965, five months after the “Bloody Sunday” attack on civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, gave momentum to the bill that became known as the Voting Rights Act.

In the six decades since, it became one of the most consequential laws in the nation's history, preventing discrimination against minorities at the ballot box and helping to elect thousands of Black and Hispanic representatives at all levels of government.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court knocked out a major pillar of the law that had protected against racial discrimination in voting and representation. It was a decision that came more than a decade after the court undermined another key tenet of the law and led to restrictive voting laws in a number of states. Voting and civil rights advocates were left fearful of what lies ahead for minority communities.