Don’t let fear of change determine vote

It is a truth universally acknowledged that human beings don’t just dislike change; we fear it. That’s as true for moving house as it is for getting a divorce or ousting a political incumbent.

Manitoba makes strides on poverty, but EIA rates must increase: report

When Jayline Bursey gets her monthly Employment and Income Assistance cheque, it’s gone almost immediately.

Federal poll finds nearly half of Canadians think country takes ‘too many immigrants’

OTTAWA - A survey commissioned by the federal government late last year suggests nearly half of Canadians believe the country is admitting too many immigrants — but the share of respondents who think so has dropped since last year's polling.

The survey found 47 per cent of respondents believe "too many" immigrants are coming to Canada, while 38 per cent say "about the right amount" are coming.

A similar government poll conducted in late 2024 reported 54 per cent of respondents saying that "too many" immigrants were coming to Canada.

The report on the latest poll says the numbers saw little to no movement after respondents were told the government plans to admit 380,000 permanent residents this year.

Quebec moves ahead with AI cultural databank project

MONTREAL - Quebec's national library is moving ahead with plans to create a database of cultural and government content that could be used to train artificial intelligence systems and improve their understanding of Quebec society, culture and Indigenous languages.

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, or BAnQ, the province's national library and archives institution, has launched the experimental phase of its proposed government and cultural databank in French and Indigenous languages after completing a feasibility study earlier this year.

The project aims to address concerns that major generative AI systems often struggle to provide reliable information about Quebec society, economy and culture because of the limited amount of Quebec-related data available to them.

"All scenarios are a little bit on the table right now," Valérie D'Amour, who led the feasibility study, said in an interview. "We have a lot of ideas and we want to validate the possibilities with cultural stakeholders, as well as with data owners and providers, who will be involved in the discussions."

Advocates call on Ottawa to limit nicotine use among youth, demand stricter measures

OTTAWA - Several health organizations are urging the federal government to bring down nicotine use among Canadians to less than five per cent of the population by 2045, as vaping among youth rises.

Les Hagen, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, says nicotine use has grown exponentially among Canadians aged 25 and under, which he says is a "huge concern."

Hagen said several published systematic reviews have shown that vaping creates a nicotine pathway in the brain — making them addicted to the substance, which makes youth more susceptible to starting smoking cigarettes.

"If that can't be satisfied by nicotine products like vaping products, they will find other ways to satisfy those cravings, including smoking."

City taking steps to reduce speeding in 30 km/h school zones

A pair of 30-kilometre-per-hour school zones known as speeding hot spots are getting safety upgrades this summer amid a citywide probe into posted speed limits.

Winnipeg school officials were recently briefed on hot spots for collisions and photo-radar tickets issued near elementary buildings between the months of September and June, when the maximum limit drops.

“There’s no cookie-cutter kind of solution, unfortunately,” said Denae Dorge, the city’s road safety outreach co-ordinator.

“You need to have lots of different tools in your toolbox and also, work with the families that attend your school.”

Religion on census needs a rework, group says

Did you get the long form of the census? If you did, then you are among the 25 per cent of Canadians who had a chance to tell the government about your religious identity.

The federal government has been collecting information about religion in Canada since 1871; it’s one of the oldest efforts to track religion in the world.

Since that time, the religious landscape in Canada has changed a lot. Up until the 1960s, the country was mainly Christian, with small numbers of Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist Canadians.

The 2026 census lists over 200 religious groups, just over half of them Protestant and Catholic. The rest are from a wide variety of other religious traditions, including six streams of Buddhism, 10 different Jewish groups, seven kinds of Islam and five different forms of Indigenous spirituality. People can also choose from Wiccan, Satanist, Rastafarian and New Age groups, among others.

Unintended consequences of bike-safety policy

Remember the law of unintended consequences in the future, when we discover that cyclist deaths rise despite investments in bike safety.

Ruling against Aboriginal title on private land is allowed to stand by high court

A New Brunswick ruling that Aboriginal title cannot be declared over private land has been allowed to stand by the Supreme Court of Canada, giving British Columbia an avenue to win its appeal in the landmark Cowichan Tribes case, B.C.'s attorney general said Thursday.

Niki Sharma said the high court's refusal to hear an appeal by the Wolastoqey First Nation in the case involving Aboriginal title in New Brunswick gives B.C. a "clear path" for an appeal in the Cowichan case, which has cast doubt on the primacy of private property rights.

"When it's the same legal issues that we are dealing with here, I think that bodes well for our arguments, and the appeals that we are seeking in B.C.," she said.

The mayor of Richmond, B.C., meanwhile said private property owners in the Cowichan Tribes title area should "breathe a little easier" in light of the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling.

Gamification and memes lure young people to sports wagering apps, prediction markets

When Rory McIlroy won the Masters for the second year in a row, Kalshi shared a photo of him on Instagram with the words, “Wait he’s goated.” When a video of NBA player Damian Lillard recovering from an injury circulated online, Kalshi’s main competitor Polymarket posted, “The league is cooked.”

If you don’t know what either of those phrases mean, it's because you may not be the target audience.

The posts and hundreds of others like it are exposing younger people to prediction market platforms, where users can put money on the line for the outcomes of real-world events — or absurd ones like when the U.S. will confirm that aliens exist or whether Jesus Christ will return before 2027.

Once on the platforms, companies keep users hooked with what they market as low-stakes, casual opportunities to make an easy buck, creating an environment that some say feels more like a game and less like a risky financial transaction with potentially harmful consequences. Indeed, recent academic research looking at 588 million trades on Polymarket found that profits were concentrated to just a very small group of top traders while the majority of users — 69% — lost money.