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Award-winning labour mediator Fox-Decent dies at 82

For more than a decade, if there was a log jam in contract negotiations between management and workers, Wally Fox-Decent was the person you called to settle the dispute.

Fox-Decent, who helped bring labour peace to more than 120 public and private-sector disputes as a mediator and arbitrator, died Sept. 5 at age 82.

Former Manitoba premier Gary Filmon said he respected Fox-Decent's ability to bring different sides together so much he appointed him to chair the Meech Lake constitutional task force and later brought him back to head the all-party constitutional task force on the Charlottetown Accord.

"He was renowned as a labour arbitrator and the person who could bring disparate sides to the table," Filmon said Tuesday. "But he also was a political science professor... He was well-respected.

Minister takes questions on proposed councils

Provincial officials were pressed on how they expect parents to have either the expertise or time required to volunteer on new school councils, during a town hall on the Tory government’s proposal to overhaul the public education system.

For an hour Thursday, Education Minister Cliff Cullen, deputy minister Dana Rudy, and Scott Johnston, a former school trustee and current MLA for Assiniboia, who was chosen to lead Manitoba’s parent engagement task force, fielded questions.

The evening event — the first of four telephone town halls that are scheduled for families in different regions of the province over the coming weeks — drew caregivers from Winnipeg with queries about the Education Modernization Act (Bill 64) and related strategy.

The legislation aims to replace English school boards with a centralized authority made up of government appointees. Following the reforms, there will be 15 regional directors who correspond directly with local school leaders and parent-run councils in their areas.

Indigenous voices state case on climate change

Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg was scheduled to speak at last week’s United Nations Climate Change conference in Spain.

The world’s media showed up in droves; Thunberg, 16, has attained a global following (she was recently named Time magazine’s 2019 person of the year).

When she appeared on stage Dec. 9, however, Thunberg stayed silent. She invited Indigenous activists from North America, South America and Africa to speak instead.

Rose Whipple, an 18-year-old Santee Dakota and Ho-Chunk, has led opposition against the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Line 3 pipeline, which carries oil from Alberta into Wisconsin and threatens to impact Anishinaabe lands, sacred sites and waters throughout the Great Lakes.

Politicians must stand up for democracy

Less than five months ago, Canadians elected a Parliament with a majority of MPs belonging to parties that openly supported mask and vaccine mandates. Acting on this democratic mandate and based on the public-health evidence at its disposal, our federal government instituted mandates in its areas of jurisdiction.

For more than two weeks, a group of anti-mandate activists has laid siege to our nation’s capital. It has threatened to continue to do so until our elected federal government repeals the mandates or resigns. Other anti-mandate activists have blocked international border crossings in Alberta and Manitoba, impacting small border communities and the supply of goods in both provinces, and blocked Windsor’s Ambassador bridge, Canada’s largest border crossing with the United States, disrupting the trade on which so many Canadians’ livelihoods depend.

They have also threatened to continue their roadblocks until mandates are lifted. Activists in other cities, including Winnipeg, are carrying out protests to support the Ottawa convoy.

Organized by individuals whose stated purpose is to overthrow the federal government, the Ottawa convoy was initially supported and encouraged by prominent politicians, including Candice Bergen, the interim leader of Canada’s official Opposition, Pierre Polievre, an Ontario MP and now front-runner in the race for the Conservative Party leadership, and Scott Moe, the premier of Saskatchewan.

Paralympics open in empty stadium - just like Olympics

On Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET, Toronto Star baseball columnist and Deep Left Field podcast host Mike Wilner will answer your questions about the Blue Jays and anything else baseball-related.

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

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