CTV Morning host gets the hook

Rural Canada sees uneven population change: census

Kelly Rae, the administrator of Arran, Sask., says the denizens of dwindling rural communities like her own are clinging to a vanishing way of life in Canada.

Between 2011 and 2021, the village west of the Manitoba border saw its population slashed in half to just 20 people,Statistics Canada reported on Wednesday, as it released the first tranche of data from last year's census.

The share of Canadians living in rural areas has declined for the ninth census in a row, the agency said, dropping from 18.7 per cent in 2016 to 17.8 per cent in 2021.

However, the count showed that Canada's rural population grew faster than any other G7 country, ticking up 0.4 per cent over the five-year period to 6.6 million people in May 2021.

Witnessing stabbing death of husband led woman to take own life, family tells court

Alvin Nelson will never be charged in Vanessa Chartrand’s death, but just as surely as he killed her husband with a stab wound to the heart, he claimed her life, too, her grieving father told a Winnipeg court.

Thirty-year-old Russel Clarence Gibeault died March 12, 2021, after he was stabbed 14 times inside his Agnes Street home. Two months later, Chartrand, who cradled Gibeault in her arms as his life ebbed away, hanged herself under a basement stairwell.

Nelson, 35, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced earlier this month to 18 years in prison.

In a lengthy victim impact statement provided to court, Wally Chartrand gave voice to his family’s loss and his daughter’s overwhelming pain.

Soaring fuel prices, pandemic make market untenable for TappCar

Rising gas prices and market instability have created a bumpy ride for ride-hailing services. TappCar, which five years ago became the first company to offer ride-hailing services in Winnipeg, has headed for the exit ramp.

The company’s local branch shuttered Sunday, CEO Noel Bernier confirmed to the Free Press.

“Between the pandemic effects, the unknown type of recovery we’re going to have from the pandemic, and then, of course, the energy prices… all of it just made it untenable to market or manage a… discount ride-share,” Bernier said.

The Edmonton-based platform launched in Winnipeg in 2018. Bernier was among a local group to acquire TappCar’s Winnipeg branch late last year.

Drop in staffed hospital beds driving longer ER waits

Emergency room wait times in Winnipeg have doubled since the Progressive Conservative government launched its hospital consolidation plan five years ago. But it’s not because more people are showing up at ERs.

IOC president Bach discusses ‘challenges’ for 2026 Games

ROME (AP) — Costly construction delays, a leadership vacancy linked to a volatile political climate and a lack of sponsors amid a spreading financial crisis has prompted International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach to acknowledge the “challenges” facing organizers of the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

With the IOC’s coordination commission visit to the Milan and Cortina venues postponed by three months to December because of national elections in Italy slated for later this month, it was left to Bach to handle matters during a visit with outgoing premier Mario Draghi before receiving an award from the Italian Olympic Committee.

“As always before Olympic Games, there are challenges — in particular light of this new emerging world order and the financial and economic crisis,” Bach said Friday.

“But we have overcome some challenges in the last couple of years," Bach added, referring to games held in Tokyo and Beijing amid the coronavirus pandemic. “So I’m not too worried because we know about the enthusiasm, efficiency and the dedication of our Italian friends.”

Salvation Army trio focuses on others' well-being during frigid overnight shift in pandemic

The night begins with a prayer, an incantation from the lips of three faithful members of the flock, standing in dim light with clasped hands as they implore God to direct them where help is needed most.