Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor says ‘Lake Ontario’ lyric now an anti-Trump rallying cry
By Alex Nino Gheciu Greg Keelor had been mulling what to say about Donald Trump all night. Blue Rodeo was about to play “Hasn’t Hit Me Yet” during their Saturday show at Toronto’s RBC Amphitheatre, and the Canadian band’s frontman knew their 1993 hit contained a newly loaded lyric: “Out in the middle of Lake Ontario.” Keelor considered using the moment to tear into the U.S. president, who last week signed an executive order to rename the body of water “Lake America.” “A part of me just wanted to go off on Trump and just call him a lot of bad names,” the singer-songwriter says in an interview Monday. But he opted for a different approach. Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor talks about the viral moment at the band’s Toronto show...
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What we know about Trump’s deal giving US access to vast oil reserves in Venezuela
By Collin Binkley, Juan Pablo Arráez And Regina Garcia Cano WASHINGTON (AP) — Besides a social media post from President Donald Trump, the White House has said little about what he is calling “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY” in Venezuela. Trump said the agreement announced Friday night would give the United States a stake in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, a step toward his goal of extracting energy from the country after American forces captured then-President Nicolás Maduro in a middle-of-the-night raid in January and brought him to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges. Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, described the deal as a step toward economic recovery that will modernize the country’s oil industry. In a televised address to the nation late Saturday, Rodríguez insisted Venezuela’s...
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‘Greenwashing by governments more harmful’: Who is holding Ottawa and Queen’s Park accountable?
By Anushka Yadav, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer When the federal and provincial governments promote themselves as friends of the environment, while pushing legislation and projects that will devastate landscapes and impact our well being, who holds them accountable for the blatant greenwashing? Perhaps no one. “There’s little greenwashing specific laws in Canada overall, and there are no laws that prohibit the government specifically from greenwashing,” Ecojustice Finance Lawyer Tanya Jemec told The Pointer. “The only greenwashing-specific laws in Canada are limited to deceptive marketing.” The Competition Act has historically required corporations and businesses making environmentally friendly claims about their products or activities to base them on adequate and proper testing using internationally recognized methodologies, to prove what they say. In 2024, major changes to the Competition Act through...
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Federal byelection polls open for voters in Vancouver, Toronto, Chicoutimi
By The Canadian Press Voting was underway Monday in federal byelections in Quebec, B.C. and Ontario taking place under the shadow of an intensifying trade war with the United States. Elections Canada reports that thousands have already cast votes in advance polls in the three byelections. It estimates that 11,800 advance ballots came in for Beaches-East York, 11,000 for Chicoutimi-Le Fjord and 16,700 for North Vancouver-Capilano. All eyes are on what could be a close race in rural Quebec. Conservative Richard Martel resigned his seat in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord to sit in the Senate. Martel won a tight three-way race in 2025, beating the Liberal and Bloc Québécois candidates by about 1,500 votes. McGill University political science professor Daniel Béland says if the Tories can’t hold on to the Quebec seat,...
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Family calls for probe of decision to grant parole to man convicted in woman’s death
By Alessia Passafiume Family members of the late Barbara Kentner are demanding that the Parole Board of Canada explain why it granted her attacker full parole without first meeting with them. Kentner was walking on a street in Thunder Bay, Ont., with her sister in 2017 when Brayden Bushby tossed a trailer hitch at her, striking her in the abdomen. The First Nations woman died six months later. Bushby, now 25, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault but was convicted of manslaughter for what the presiding judge described as a callous, misogynist attack. He was recently granted full parole after being sentenced in 2021 to eight years in prison. Kentner’s sister Connie Kentner says her family deserves to know why Bushby was granted full parole and wants systemic changes to ensure...
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National chief encourages eligible First Nation to submit claims
By Jacqueline St.Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor OTTAWA—National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak stated on August 17 that more than 30,000 First Nations children who were removed from their homes have now received compensation through the First Nations Child and Family Services (FNCFS) and Jordan’s Principle Settlement. Over $1.2 billion has been provided in compensation to eligible claimants, marking an important milestone in one of Canada’s largest class action settlements. “Behind every claim is an experience that reflects Canada’s discrimination against First Nations children and families,” said National Chief Woodhouse Nepinak in a press release. “No amount of compensation can undo that harm. This milestone is important because it reflects the thousands of people whose experiences have now been acknowledged, while reminding us that others are still moving...
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Trump contacted Apple directly to change name of Lake Ontario to Lake America: Burgum
By Kelly Geraldine Malone U.S. President Donald Trump contacted Apple directly to get the company to change the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” a top administration official said Monday. U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the Fox Business network the body of water’s name might soon change on Apple maps. Trump signed an executive order last week to rename the Great Lake as tensions between the two countries escalated following a breakdown in trade talks. Google Maps updated its service to identify the body of water as “Lake America” for users in the United States over the weekend. The company said in a post on its corporate website Saturday the change was made because the U.S. government’s geographic names database had formally renamed the lake. Users in Canada...
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Trump’s ‘renaming’ of Lake Ontario is emblematic of centuries of colonial erasure
By Nicole Rosen, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Language Interactions, University of Manitoba The ongoing economic spat between Canada and the United States took a strange turn after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order “renaming” Lake Ontario as Lake America. The lake is the second body of water to be renamed by Trump. In January 2025, he similarly ordered that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America. That same order also officially changed Alaska’s Mount Denali to its colonial name, Mount McKinley. While many might view Trump’s renamings as comical or unserious, for Indigenous communities, they are reminiscent of centuries of settler-colonial erasure. What’s in a place name? The name Ontario can be traced to the Huron word ontarí:io, a Wyandot (Huron) word meaning...
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‘Implosion’: Warbus is seventh B.C. Conservative to quit caucus, blaming Findlay
By Chuck Chiang B.C. Conservative MLA A’a:liya Warbus, one of the Opposition’s most prominent legislators, has joined the exodus from the party’s caucus, saying she has lost confidence in it under new leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay. Warbus said in a statement on Monday morning she would sit as an Independent, becoming the seventh Conservative MLA to quit the caucus this month, including five last week. The Indigenous MLA and former House leader cited the cancellation of a caucus meeting she said had been called for Monday in light of a “reasonable cause for concern” about last week’s “implosion.” “The decision to postpone today’s caucus meeting for a month reflects the lack of value being placed on caucus members and their opinions,” she said in her statement. “It is one thing to...
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Connection to culture saves lives in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
By Nora O’Malley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ha-Shilth-Sa Vancouver, BC – Across the street from Pigeon Park in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), a large orange feather pops into view from a storefront window. As one gets closer, the deep sound of traditional drumming bellows out the open door, inviting the country’s most marginalized in for a cup of coffee, a sandwich and a safe place for people to just sit and be. Welcome to Culture Saves Lives, a movement founded by Patrick Smith in response to the tragic death of a young Indigenous woman named Paige. Paige died in April 2013 of a drug overdose in a communal washroom adjacent to Oppenheimer Park in the DTES. She was just 19-years-old. A report entitled “Paige’s Story: Abuse, Indifference and a Young...
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Wiikwemkoong builds ‘Grandma’ houses
By Jacqueline St.Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor Another seven coming soon WIIKWEMKOONG—Three new five-bedroom homes are taking shape near the Buzwah borderline, entering Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, built with something more compelling than walls and windows in mind: the way First Nations families sometimes have to stretch, bend and gather themselves back together when life-altering circumstances threaten to pull the fabric of their families apart. For Grandmother Alison Recollet, one of the women who will soon move into one of those homes, the meaning of it can be summed up in a phrase that reaches far beyond housing. “No matter how the children can come and go, depending on what’s going on with their family, I’m the centre home fire for everybody there.” A home fire. The place...
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Ontario breaks ground on longest stretch of proposed Ring of Fire road network
Construction on the longest stretch of a road network to Ontario’s mineral-rich Ring of Fire region has begun. The provincial government announced today that ground has been broken on a road to eventually connect the remote Marten Falls First Nation to the provincial highway network. Chief Bruce Achneepineskum says the route will strengthen connections to health care and other essential services, while helping to accelerate the community’s growth. The provincial government says it’s part of a plan to unlock the economic potential of the Ring of Fire region and meet global demand for minerals. That plan has been met with pushback by some First Nations, notably in response to legislation giving the government powers to fast-track projects. The road to Marten Falls will span about 184 kilometres, or just over...
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Wikwemikong Tribal Police Service turns to innovation to make community safer
By Jacqueline St.Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor Gain automated licence plate readers WIIKWEMKOONG—For some people, the words “automated licence plate reader” might conjure an image of an increasingly watched world. Cameras quietly recording who comes and goes, storing information about ordinary people simply going about their day. For Sgt. Mike Force of the Wikwemikong Tribal Police Service (WTPS), the reality has a less ominous intent. The force’s new automated licence plate reader (ALPR) is not designed to monitor the community indiscriminately, he explained. It is a public safety tool; one that allows officers to identify vehicles associated with specific police alerts while respecting the privacy of people who are simply driving through the community. “We are utilizing a technological advancement in ALPR that assists us in identifying...
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The B.C. Conservative caucus is down to 30. Here’s how it lost 14 members
By Canadian Press Staff The B.C. Conservatives came within three ridings of victory in the 2024 provincial election, winning 44 seats. But since then, the party’s caucus has been thinned to 30, amid differences over its ideology, and questions about its direction under both former leader John Rustad and new leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay. Here are the 14 legislators who have exited the party, and why. DALLAS BRODIE, JORDAN KEALY AND TARA ARMSTRONG Brodie (Vancouver-Quilchena) is thrown out of the caucus by Rustad on March 7, 2025, over remarks that Rustad says mocked residential school survivors. Armstrong (Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream) and Kealy (Peace River North) follow later that day, in sympathy with Brodie. Armstrong briefly joins Brodie as a member of the new OneBC party before they split. Because OneBC lacks official...
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Cardinal Marc Ouellet wins lawsuit against woman who accused him of sexual misconduct
By Morgan Lowrie Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet has won his civil defamation suit against a woman who accused him of sexual misconduct. Superior Court Justice Martin Castonguay ruled that Paméla Groleau’s accusations against the cardinal are unfounded and ordered her to pay him $100,000. Groleau had accused Ouellet of touching her without consent on three occasions between 2008 and 2010, while she was training or working as a lay pastoral agent for the church. Castonguay noted in his judgment that Groleau changed her story several times, including eventually saying that she only considered one of the alleged interactions to be a sexual assault. The judge noted that the damage to Ouellet was compounded by the fact that Groleau named him in a class-action lawsuit against the Quebec archdiocese that overwhelmingly...
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Community comes together to raise 40-foot-tall tipi
By Connor Luczka, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Stratford Times On a typical summer morning Aug. 18, community members and friends gathered on the grounds behind the Stratford-Perth Museum, bringing bags of equipment and rope, carved wooden poles about 44 feet long and a heavy canvas. With an area about 30 feet in diameter carved into the brush set out, the men and women went about their work: raising a tipi. “We had this tipi up at Gowanstown,” explained Christin Dennis, one of the organizers for the endeavour. “The tipi came to being by the Sixties Scoop (Healing) Foundation. I’m also a Sixties Scoop survivor, and I wanted to create a venue for people to come to learn about Indigenous culture and Indigenous ceremonies and traditions, and that’s how the tipi...
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‘Epic fighter’: Tributes for B.C. Indigenous leader and MLA Joan Phillip, dead at 74
By The Canadian Press British Columbia legislator and Indigenous leader Joan Phillip has died, with Premier David Eby honouring her as an “epic fighter.” The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs said in a statement on Friday that the NDP MLA died peacefully Friday afternoon, surrounded by her family, including “the love of her life,” husband Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, their children and grandchildren. “Joan was a fearless warrior and inspirational leader, and we will miss her dearly,” the union said. She was 74. Phillip had been battling an illness for months, and the union’s post asked for donations to the B.C. Cancer Society in lieu of flowers. The organization said in a previous post on Thursday that Phillip was in hospital “courageously fighting kidney infection and septic shock.” Philip...
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Community comes together to raise 40-foot-tall tipi
By Connor Luczka, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Stratford Times On a typical summer morning Aug. 18, community members and friends gathered on the grounds behind the Stratford-Perth Museum, bringing bags of equipment and rope, carved wooden poles about 44 feet long and a heavy canvas. With an area about 30 feet in diameter carved into the brush set out, the men and women went about their work: raising a tipi. “We had this tipi up at Gowanstown,” explained Christin Dennis, one of the organizers for the endeavour. “The tipi came to being by the Sixties Scoop (Healing) Foundation. I’m also a Sixties Scoop survivor, and I wanted to create a venue for people to come to learn about Indigenous culture and Indigenous ceremonies and traditions, and that’s how the tipi...
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Court sides with Guardians Network in $6.2-million civil suit
By Claire McFarlane, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cabin Radio A Manitoba judge has ordered a former employee of the First Nations National Guardians Network to repay more than $6.2 million to the organization, funds which it says were misappropriated. In March, the non-profit launched a civil lawsuit against Melanie Desjarlais, the organization’s former director of finance, claiming she used funds earmarked for Indigenous Guardians programs for personal transactions, including flights, tickets to hockey games and purchases on Tiktok, PayPal and Apple. The First Nations National Guardians Network, or NGN, administered funds from the federal Department of Environment and Climate Change that paid for Indigenous Guardians programs across Canada, including in the Northwest Territories’ Sahtu region. In a statement of claim filed by NGN, the organization accused Desjarlais of falsifying at...
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‘Then, now and always’: Carney says it will always be Lake Ontario after Trump order
Lake Oniatari:io, the Haudenosaunee word for Lake Ontario By Kelly Geraldine Malone Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canadians know Lake Ontario will always be known by its original name, after U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to change it to Lake America. In a post on social media, Carney said “we know that America is changing.” “Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” Carney posted. “Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always.” Tensions between the two countries have escalated since trade negotiations fell apart on Friday. Both countries have accused each other of implementing eleventh-hour changes. Carney has said the agreement became untenable. The federal government unveiled its retaliatory measures, set to go...
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