OTTAWA - A timeline of events regarding the Canada Student Service Grant program, based on public documents, events and statements from cabinet ministers, government officials, and WE Charity:

March 6, 2020: WE Charity staff prepare a concept paper on service learning for public servants at Employment and Social Development Canada.

April 5: Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talk over the phone about how to help students whose summer job and volunteer opportunities were vanishing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Finance Department officials are tasked with considering options the next morning.

April 7: Small Business Minister Mary Ng and WE co-founder Craig Kielburger have an introductory phone call in which Ng asks WE to send what it calls a ``pre-established proposal'' to help young people launch businesses.

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OTTAWA - The Mental Health Commission of Canada is offering free online mental health programs to essential workers struggling with the emotional and psychological strain of COVID-19.

Commission president and CEO Louise Bradley says the digital tools will be able to train up to 500 people a week on how to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health problems.

She notes that front-line workers risk their physical health every time they show up for duty and that undoubtedly takes a toll on their mental health.

Two programs each cover tips on how to understand, assess and improve mental health as an individual and as part of a group. A third program focuses on how to talk about mental health with family, friends and/or colleagues.

Embarrassed by turnout

I am ashamed by the poor turnout of voters in the recent municipal election in Winnipeg. Just 38 per cent of eligible voters is a disgrace to the thousands of men and women who gave their lives in past wars, where they were defending democracy and the right to vote.

My grandfather was an infantry soldier in the First World War, and my father-in-law flew in Avro Lancasters in the Second World War. For both I am grateful.

Maybe the 62 per cent that had a flimsy excuse for not voting will keep this mind for the next election. People died for our right to vote.

When Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew declared Sept. 17 that the province would remain on permanent daylight time, he suggested it was a historical moment people would share with their “great-great-grandkids.” But, while Sunday, Nov. 1 has been heralded as the date many Canadians will stop changing their clocks, there are rumblings behind the scenes suggesting this will actually cause more trouble than ever before.

There are, of course, the warnings from chrono-biologists and sleep scientists about the damage permanent daylight time will do. The lighter evenings will mean many more dark mornings. But there is another set of problems in the offing in the critical infrastructure that underpins our digital lives.

While it used to be common to spend the Sunday morning after a time change going around our homes updating the clocks, we now wake up to devices that have already adjusted to the new time. These automatic updates occur regularly for daylight time, as well as when we travel to new time zones.

Our clocks are able to change by themselves owing to the hard work of a group of volunteers who were recently named in a list of the people who hold up the internet. This group, led by Paul Eggert, a computer scientist at UCLA, maintains a little-known tool called the Time Zone Database. Since the 1980s, it has kept track of regional, national and international debates about clock time and provided an up-to-date table of what time it should be on our walls.

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