Swiss skier Odermatt wins GS opener; American Radamus 6th

In 2005, Powell admitted to Barbara Walters his deep regret at having misconstrued the evidence supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq. That kind of admission, just a few years after the event, is exceedingly rare in political life today. Above all, this makes him worthy of commendation.

Explaining Canada’s superior employment rate

Donald Trump regularly makes outrageous claims. Fentanyl was pouring across the northern border from Canada and had to be stopped. Canada is nasty to deal with and has the highest tariffs in the world. Canada needs the U.S. but the U.S. doesn’t need Canada. Canadians want to become the 51st state. And so on.

In the latest trade dispute, after Mark Carney walked away from negotiations, Trump made a new claim that Canada’s unemployment rate was 10 per cent and climbing rapidly. Insofar as the unemployment rate is closely monitored, reported monthly, and given similar attention to the rates of inflation and economic growth, the comment was likely intended to signal Canada’s weakness. It fits Trump’s narrative that Canada needs the U.S. for its livelihood and protection and would be better off more directly under U.S. influence as a 51st state, or perhaps a protectorate like the Philippines or Panama in the past.

Fact checkers quickly reported that Canada’s unemployment rate is really 6.4 per cent for July, not 10 per cent, has fallen from 6.9 per cent in April, and is at its lowest rate since May 2024. Some astute observers pointed out that Canada’s method for the calculation of the unemployment rate leads to a higher rate than the U.S. by about one per cent. Under the American methodology, then, our unemployment rate would be 5.4 per cent, not that far off the U.S. July rate of 4.1 per cent.

Detection of unemployment is less straightforward that might appear, as it is sandwiched between the labour force statuses of employment and inactivity at a particular point in time. The internationally established standard for determination of unemployment is the notion of searching for work — you are unemployed if you do not have paid employment and you are looking for work without success. Surveys have been developed to categorize respondents as employed, unemployed or inactive, including the labour force survey (LFS) in Canada and the current population survey (CPS) in the U.S.

Manitoba teen’s assault conviction overturned

A six-year-old girl’s account of being sexually assaulted by a teenage boy at a park was enough to convince a Manitoba provincial court judge to convict the teen. But the judge’s comments about playground sand were enough for the province’s top court to overturn the conviction.

In a decision that shows how difficult it can be to secure a conviction in sexual-assault cases involving child victims, the Manitoba Court of Appeal has reversed the guilty verdict and ordered a new trial for the then-17-year-old male, who had been convicted and sentenced to probation for sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching.

Two out of three judges on the appeal panel decided there was a “miscarriage of justice” because the provincial court judge made legal errors in his analysis of the evidence — namely, whether the accused was telling the truth when he talked about the consistency of sand in the park where the girl was playing.

A third judge disagreed, writing in a dissenting judgment released earlier this month that the teen’s conviction should have been upheld. 

Crusaders football celebrates 95th anniversary

Few understand better than Stacy Dainard how steeped the St. Paul’s High School football program is in history.

The head coach of the Crusaders’ varsity team for the last 25 years has watched the institution’s presence on the gridiron blossom over four decades since he donned the maroon and white as a player from 1984-87.

Dainard figures he will harken back to those days more this weekend when a flock of Crusaders alumni from across the country gather to commemorate the football program’s 95th anniversary.

“We were a competitive team. We had some very committed coaches and some very committed student-athletes,” said Dainard, who reached the provincial championship in each of his first three seasons as a student-athlete. “It was a good time. Football wasn’t as big as it is now, or at least high school football wasn’t as big as it is now. But it was a very competitive league.”

Chamber hears about the business of belonging

Members of the city’s business community were encouraged to emulate Dolly Parton, the recently deceased country singer known for her upbeat attitude and philanthropic efforts, at a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce luncheon Friday afternoon.

“(The message of) this whole speech is basically, ‘Be like Dolly,’” said Cordella Friesen, president and CEO at the YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg, noting that some communities celebrate Dolly Parton Day on Sept. 25 (9/25) — a reference to the singer’s hit movie and song, 9 to 5.

The lighthearted remarks kicked off Friesen’s keynote address in front of around 400 business executives at the Delta hotel.

Friesen spoke about her belief in radical optimism, which she defined as “the disciplined conviction, grounded in evidence, that any problem can be solved when moral courage is expressed through action.”