Advertisement

Learn more about Winnipeg Free Press Advertising solutions

Opinion

win mcnamee / getty images Files The U.S. Supreme Court

Many Canadian eyes on America’s top court

Editorial 4 minute read Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025

When oral arguments were presented Wednesday morning to the Supreme Court of the United States, Canada was just one of many interested parties listening intently to what was said.

The issue at hand before America’s highest court was tariffs — specifically, the legality of the manner in which U.S. President Donald Trump has unilaterally imposed them on virtually every one of his nation’s global trading partners.

In order to bypass the congressional approvals that are routinely required on matters of taxation and revenue, Trump has invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The 1977 law allows the president to regulate economic transactions during national emergencies; in order to invoke the law as the rationale for his wide-ranging and whim-motivated penalties, Trump has stretched the definitions of “national emergency” and “national security” to encompass pretty much anything or anyone in the global marketplace he doesn’t like at a particular moment in time.

Trump’s tariff strategy has been challenged by numerous small business groups, as well as at least a dozen states, and lower courts have consistently ruled against the punitive policy. The Supreme Court case — which will require lengthy deliberation and likely won’t produce a decision for several months — will be a defining moment for Trump.

Elderly African rulers sidestepping democracy

Kyle Volpi Hiebert 5 minute read Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025

Cameroon’s 92-year-old President Paul Biya is now poised to stretch his time in power to five decades. If he finishes his new seven-year term, Biya will be nearly 100. By contrast, the median age of Cameroon’s 30 million citizens is just 18. Indeed, the autocrat is the only leader that most Cameroonians have ever known.

“There was no election; it was a masquerade,” said the main opposition challenger, Issa Tchiroma Bakary.

The country’s pro-government election commission on Oct. 27 released final results showing Biya won 53 per cent of votes compared with 35 per cent for the former labour minister. Yet international monitors and political rivals routinely claim polls during Biya’s tenure have been marred by irregularities. This time was no different.

The president’s contested victory also came amid an ominous backdrop.

Focus on the verdict, not political posturing

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Focus on the verdict, not political posturing

Editorial 4 minute read Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025

This may not be popular — after all, politicians from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew to Ontario Premier Doug Ford have gone full-bore to wind up the public on this issue.

Kinew even went so far as to suggest invoking “the code of the streets” and the need for some convicted criminals to be buried “under the prison.”

The object of their attacks? A Supreme Court of Canada verdict that overturned a mandatory minimum one-year prison sentence for convictions involving child pornography.

The verdict is getting plenty of heat beyond the politicians.

Read
Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025

Mike Deal/Winnipeg Free Press files

Premier Wab Kinew
Mike Deal/Winnipeg Free Press files Premier Wab Kinew

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

Weather

Nov. 23, 6 AM: 1°c Cloudy Nov. 23, 12 PM: 6°c Cloudy with wind

Winnipeg MB

0°C, Clear

Full Forecast

Poilievre’s maple MAGA methodology

Judy Waytiuk 5 minute read Preview

Poilievre’s maple MAGA methodology

Judy Waytiuk 5 minute read Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025

The guy standing behind Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in the news conference (his public safety critic, Frank Caputo) bore a profoundly unsettling, heavyset resemblance to Trump acolyte Stephen Miller, a similarity that distracted me briefly from Poilievre’s remarks until I heard his outrageous claim that Prime Minister Mark Carney first approved Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s tariff ad and then torpedoed the trade talks with the U.S. He repeated the double-barrelled lie many times.

I waited for two of three Canadian news networks (I can’t pogo-stick around channels fast enough to monitor all three simultaneously) to call him out. And did our media do that?

CTV threw to a commercial break immediately upon cutting away from the Poilievre newser once the man stopped speaking. Not a shred of analysis regarding the falsehoods Poilievre repeated during the newser.

CBC’s Janyce McGregor had the temerity to suggest “we should maybe take a bit of a pause here” and noted that Carney was, yes, aware of the ad, but we “don’t think there are enough facts to ‘stand that up.’” (Poilievre’s claim that Carney “approved” it). No reference to the flat-out lie that Carney terminated the trade talks.

Read
Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025

spencer colby / The Canadian Press files

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to reporters in Ottawa on Oct. 22.
spencer colby / The Canadian Press files Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to reporters in Ottawa on Oct. 22.

Increased costs and fees — end the dance

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Increased costs and fees — end the dance

Editorial 4 minute read Monday, Nov. 3, 2025

There are few people who dispute the need for a $3-billion upgrade to Winnipeg’s North End Sewage Treatment Plant. How and when it should be fully funded, however, has been a source of great uncertainty.

There is near consensus on the size, scope and environmental importance of the project. Massive upgrades to the 88-year-old facility have been contemplated for decades and became a pressing issue in the early 2000s when the aging plant failed and spewed millions of cubic litres of raw sewage into the Red River. Ultimately, the provincial Clean Environment Commission ordered the City of Winnipeg to assemble a plan to replace the plant.

The city responded with a three-phase plan that, in 2005, was pegged at more than $1 billion, a sum that was well beyond the financial capacity of the city and its homeowners to cover on their own. Funding requests were made to both the provincial and federal governments, triggering the first in a series of what we might call the fiscal tango.

It starts with the city releasing trial balloons featuring alarming estimates of the increased cost per home of paying for the upgrade without funding from senior levels of government. After this initial gesture, Ottawa and the province expressed their support but stop short of fully committing to its costs.

Read
Monday, Nov. 3, 2025

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS

Construction at the Nort End Sewage Treatment Plant.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Construction at the Nort End Sewage Treatment Plant.

Time to limit the notwithstanding clause

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Time to limit the notwithstanding clause

Editorial 4 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025

You can perhaps better understand why the federal government has asked Canada’s Supreme Court to rule on whether there should be guardrails on how the notwithstanding clause can be used.

The clause enables provincial governments — and theoretically, even the federal government — to bring in legislation that violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

It’s easier to understand why the federal government wants the Supreme Court’s ruling when provinces like Alberta are using the clause for things as common as imposing contracts on its employees — thereby giving those employees no ability to strike or challenge the imposed contracts in court.

The Alberta government took such an action against its striking teachers on Monday despite having other options, and despite recognizing that the law it brought in likely not only violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Alberta Human Rights Act as well.

Read
Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025

Christinne muschi / The Canadian Press files

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith
Christinne muschi / The Canadian Press files Alberta Premier Danielle Smith

Province has to do more than talk the talk

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Province has to do more than talk the talk

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025

The breakdown of mediation between the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys (MACA) and the provincial government should alarm anyone concerned about public safety.

This is not just a labour dispute, it’s a crisis that strikes at the core of Manitoba’s ability to prosecute crimes fairly, efficiently and effectively.

For months, prosecutors have been raising the alarm about crushing workloads, burnout and chronic understaffing in the Crown’s office.

Some have left for other jurisdictions or for less stressful work in the private sector. Those who remain are often stretched to the breaking point, juggling dozens of files at once, with little time to properly prepare cases or argue bail hearings.

Read
Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS

Premier Wab Kinew
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Premier Wab Kinew

More Opinion

Making peace at work: finding calm after conflict

Tory McNally 7 minute read Preview

Making peace at work: finding calm after conflict

Tory McNally 7 minute read Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025

There’s nothing that can sour your workday faster than tension with a colleague. You see them in meetings, exchange clipped hellos and try to avoid each other in the lunchroom.

The conflict may have started small as a disagreement about priorities, a misunderstood comment or a perceived slight, but now it sits between you like a wall. It can feel impossible to relax or focus when someone you have to see every day is a source of frustration.

Here’s the hard truth: holding on to workplace conflict hurts you more than anyone else. It drains your energy, reduces job satisfaction and can even damage your professional reputation. You don’t have to be friends with your co-worker, but you do have to find a way to work together.

Repairing that relationship is not a favour to them, it’s an act of self-preservation.

Read
Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025
Making peace at work: finding calm after conflict

In gut do you trust?

Joel Schlesinger 5 minute read Preview

In gut do you trust?

Joel Schlesinger 5 minute read Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025

Find profitable companies. Buy them. Hold them. Eventually sell them at a significant profit.

Buy low, sell high, in short. And yet, the stock market is characterized by wild swings of collective investor emotion — notably greed and fear.

A new study by CIBC Investor’s Edge offers some insight as to why investors are emotional: many trust their gut.

It found 45 per cent of respondents ages 18 to 34 admit to investing based on gut feel. That number drops to about 20 per cent among those age 55 and older, who unsurprisingly are often more risk-averse.

Read
Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025

Jakub Zerdzicki / Unsplash

Award-winning portfolio managers — like Mark Costa, a director at Brandes Investment Partners in San Diego — typically exploit gut-driven mistakes by other investors.
Jakub Zerdzicki / Unsplash Award-winning portfolio managers — like Mark Costa, a director at Brandes Investment Partners in San Diego — typically exploit gut-driven mistakes by other investors.

Reading and homelessness

Jon Gerrard 4 minute read Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025

Preventing and addressing homelessness needs to include learning disabilities.

Jino Distasio (Canada’s failing grade on homelessness, Sept. 3) correctly bewails the large increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness in Winnipeg which has increased from 1,256 to 2,469 in the latest count. He provides five concrete suggestions for actions.

Missing are important actions for the early diagnosis and help with ADHD and dyslexia. In 1996, researchers reported that about 80 per cent of youth experiencing homelessness had a learning disability. The most recent count of people who were experiencing homelessness in Winnipeg found that 46 per cent had a learning disability, or cognitive impairment (53 per cent for those under 30 years of age).

These numbers are almost certainly low because self-reporting of learning disabilities tends to be much lower than results from actually testing learning ability. ADHD is also common in those experiencing homelessness with up to 64 per cent of youth experiencing homelessness having ADHD in a study in Quebec. In 2022, the street census found that more than half of those experiencing homelessness had not completed high school, another potential indicator of a learning difficulty and/or ADHD.

LOAD MORE