Alberta separatists say they’ve collected enough signatures to trigger a referendum

EDMONTON - Two Alberta separatists say their group has collected enough signatures from citizens to trigger a referendum on the province quitting Canada.

Mitch Sylvestre says the group – named Stay Free Alberta -- has collected well over the approximate 178,000-signature threshold. And he says volunteers who have been keeping tally as the signatures come in are expecting that number to grow.

"We (have) more than the buffer that's required if they (Elections Alberta) refuse signatures as well," Sylvestre said in a phone interview Tuesday.

They still have another month to go before they must deliver the names to Elections Alberta for verification, but Jeffrey Rath, the general counsel for the group, says they want to announce their success now.

Federal government taking over vaccine injury compensation, aims to address backlog

OTTAWA - The federal public health agency is taking over administration of a program that compensates people who have been injured by vaccines, and pledging to review claims that were refused by a third-party administrator for being filed too late.

The vaccine injury support program began accepting claims in June 2021, after the widespread rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in Canada.

People who experienced a "serious and permanent injury" as a result of receiving a vaccine authorized by Health Canada after Dec. 8, 2020, are eligible to make a claim.

It's also been the subject of complaints from claimants who say the process is slow and communication is poor.

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.

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.

Quebec man charged with fraud in local ‘grandparent scam’

Winnipeg police have arrested a 24-year-old Quebec man in a so-called grandparent scam carried out last month.

Police said Friday that a person in their 80s was contacted by someone posing as a justice official. The caller claimed a relative had been arrested and that money was needed to keep them out of jail.

After the victim agreed to pay the amount, an unknown man arrived at their home to collect the money.

The victim later learned from family members that the story was false, and reported the incident to police.

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.

Advocate’s report calls for urgent reform of child-welfare system

Cali Derksen was 14 when she threw a few things into a backpack and left home, fleeing weapons and threats of violence for what she believed would be a safer place.

Now 16, she said Child and Family Services did “good” by removing her from the home.

“But after they did that, I didn’t think much really came out of them,” she said Thursday at the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth office at 320 Donald St. “I had to call Kids Help line. I had to find solutions for myself in order to feel safe… because CFS wasn’t supporting me.”

Derksen’s experience is one of 17 shared in a new report calling for urgent reform of Manitoba’s child-welfare system. Youth in care say they are often left unsupported, unprepared and unheard.