Prince Harry takes on first duties since royal crisis talks

Prince Harry takes on first duties since royal crisis talks

LONDON - Prince Harry went back to work Thursday, mixing with children playing rugby and offering no hint of the days of turmoil that followed his recent announcement that he wished to step back from royal duties and become financially independent.

It was a fairly standard event for Harry, who watched as children from a local school offer a rugby demonstration on the Buckingham Palace grounds. Though ordinary, it marked the first time Harry had taken on a public engagement since announcing last week that he and his wife Meghan needed a change.

He joked with the kids and shook hands — offering flashes of the beaming smile that has made him one of the most popular members of the House of Windsor. He ignored a journalist's question about ongoing discussions on his future.

“Look after the grass though, yeah?" he said to the children before retreating into his grandmother's house. “Otherwise I'll get in trouble.”

National Black Canadians Summit celebrates culture, combats racism

Despite the event’s name — the National Black Canadians Summit — Bruce Miller felt he should attend.

He booked a ticket. And so, this weekend, the Indigenous Manitoban joined roughly 1,500 people flocking to the RBC Convention Centre.

It’s a full schedule — addresses from a former Canadian governor general, sessions on Black mental health and anti-Black racism.

The annual event draws politicians, artists and other professionals from across the country.

Mayor honours pair who rescued little girl, father from Red River in August

A “proud and thankful” Mayor Scott Gillingham honoured two Winnipeggers Friday who rescued a young girl who fell into the Red River last month.

Gillingham said he was humbled to meet Jayclyn Morrissette and Brady Saunders before he presented them with the Mayor’s Award of Valour for saving the child and her father, who jumped into the water in an attempt to help his daughter and nearly drowned.

“These are the kind of people who we have in our city,” he said. “When someone is in need, they’ll step up, risk their own lives, to help someone they’ve never met in their life.”

Morrissette and Saunders were at St. John’s Park in the evening on Aug. 24, when they saw the man and child in the river.

Meth crisis could have been avoided, parliamentary hearing told

OTTAWA — The federal government could have spotted Winnipeg’s methamphetamine problem before it reached a crisis point, a senior bureaucrat has told Parliament.

As the House health committee started its hearings on the national meth problem Thursday, multiple officials cited disparate data-collection efforts as thwarting their ability to identify who’s taking meth, what help they need and how to prevent others from getting hooked.

The federal government is working on a central drug observatory to corroborate the data that has already been collected by border guards, police, hospitals and social-service agencies.

“We have never brought that data together in a co-ordinated and comprehensive way," said Suzy McDonald, who leads Health Canada’s response to opioids and other drugs.

Canadian politicians speaking with one voice

It was something that seems unusual in politics in recent years: politicians of different stripes taking the same side and together supporting what Canada needs to do, and is doing, to address U.S. trade attacks.

Take former prime minister Stephen Harper, closing out a major Toronto investment meeting set up by Prime Minister Mark Carney with a speech where Harper said he not only supported Carney’s decision to walk away from trade talks with the U.S., but that he would have done the same thing.

The deal the Americans were demanding “leaves no choice but for Canada to pursue diminished reliance on the U.S.,” Mr. Harper said. “There will be significant costs to this effort, but those are costs that I hope and believe Canadians are able and prepared to accept.”

And, Harper said, Canada has plenty to offer to other countries that want to trade with us: integrity.

Une nouvelle oeuvre pour raconter l’histoire autrement

Pendant des décennies, le parc La Vérendrye, situé sur l’avenue Taché, au cœur de Saint-Boniface, a raconté l’histoire de l’explorateur français du même nom à travers une seule statue. La Compagnie de La Vérendrye, un groupe de reconstitution historique, a piloté un projet de conception d’une nouvelle œuvre d’art qui pourrait raconter une autre partie de l’histoire.