Be open about discovering hubby’s little helper

Air passenger org. asks SCC to hear refund case

An advocacy group is asking the Supreme Court of Canada to hear a case on passenger refunds as frustration over flights cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic continues to simmer.

The Air Passenger Rights organization sought leave to appeal Monday a Federal Court of Appeal decision that dismissed the group's attempt for an injunction compelling the Canadian Transportation Agency to remove a post about refunds from its website temporarily while a broader case about the statement's validity is ongoing.

The CTA said in March that airlines have the right to issue travel credits instead of a refund for cancelled trips in the "current context," though the agency later clarified that the online statement was "not a binding decision."

Canadian airlines have generally offered credit valid for two years or more but avoided offering reimbursement to customers whose flights were called off because of the coronavirus crisis, with carriers citing the agency's stance in response to consumer complaints and analyst questions.

Abortion rights poised to go before Michigan voters in fall

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Abortion rights are poised to come before Michigan voters in November after an abortion rights campaign turned in a record-breaking number of signatures Monday for a ballot initiative to the secretary of state’s office.

The effort will further increase attention on Michigan's elections, where the battleground state’s Democratic governor and attorney general have made abortion rights a centerpiece of their reelection campaigns.

The push to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution comes weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and gave states the power to decide whether to ban the procedure. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

Michigan is among several states with a pre-Roe abortion law that was set to take effect if Roe was overturned. However, a judge issued an injunction that temporarily blocked it. The 1931 law would make abortion a felony in all cases, except when “necessary to preserve the life of such woman.”

Uninformed health minister’s empty promises no help to Manitobans

Wait times for elective heart surgery in Manitoba have ballooned. They are now quadruple what they were when hospitals began cancelling surgeries last year during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s unclear when that backlog will be reduced. Cardiac surgery has not been identified as a priority by the province’s diagnostic and surgical wait-time task force. When asked several times over the past week when targets would be established to reduce wait times for all surgeries — many of which have grown dramatically during the pandemic to free up staff and space for COVID-19 patients — no one from government, including Health Minister Audrey Gordon, has provided a straight answer.

That’s a tough pill to swallow for any Manitoban on a surgical or diagnostic waiting list. It’s particularly horrific for anyone with a serious heart condition.

Cardiac surgeries are categorized into three levels of urgency. Level 1: critically ill patients who require surgery within one to 14 days. Level 2: patients with a significant heart problem who need surgery within 15-42 days. And Level 3: stable cardiac patients who need bypass surgery within 43-180 days.

‘Like TNT’: Experts say Saskatchewan attacks underscore need for justice support

A deadly stabbing rampage over the Labour Day weekend in rural Saskatchewan underscores a critical lack of social supports in Canada's justice system, experts say.

RCMP have named Myles Sanderson, 32, as a suspect in Sunday's attacks on the James Smith Cree Nation and nearby village of Weldon, northeast of Saskatoon, that left 10 people dead and 18 injured. His younger brother Damien Sanderson, who had also been named a suspect, was also found dead near one of the crime scenes Monday from wounds police said were not self-inflicted.

Myles Sanderson was taken into custody near the town of Rosthern, Sask., on Wednesday.

Darryl Davies, a criminology expert at Carleton University, said risk factors for violent crime are well understood in his field and Sanderson’s profile, as described in a February decision from the Parole Board of Canada, should have given off more warning signs.

For singer-songwriter Scott Nolan, poetry is the path to grace

Words mean everything to Scott Nolan. After all, they saved his life.