RCMP release names of 13 people arrested, charged at Coutts, Alta., border blockade

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison dead at 88

NEW YORK - Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, a pioneer and reigning giant of modern literature whose imaginative power in "Beloved," ''Song of Solomon" and other works transformed American letters by dramatizing the pursuit of freedom within the boundaries of race, has died at age 88.

Publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced that Morrison died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Morrison's family issued a statement through Knopf saying she died after a brief illness.

"Toni Morrison passed away peacefully last night surrounded by family and friends," the family announced. "The consummate writer who treasured the written word, whether her own, her students or others, she read voraciously and was most at home when writing."

Few authors rose in such rapid, spectacular style. She was nearly 40 when her first novel, "The Bluest Eye," was published. By her early 60s, after just six novels, she had become the first black woman to receive the Nobel literature prize, praised in 1993 by the Swedish academy for her "visionary force" and for her delving into "language itself, a language she wants to liberate" from categories of black and white. In 2012, Barack Obama awarded her a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The new normal in Canadian politics

“Nothing happening, all at once.”

Welcome to the new normal of Canadian politics, where normality is the new normal. Routine and stable are in; disruptive and excessive are out. Exhibits A and B are the Alberta referendum and the British Columbia election. Voters opted for stability over volatility.

The opposite of being normal is being different from the norm. In politics that means different from where we’ve been and what we’ve come to expect. Two competing trends have dominated our politics for the past decade and a half — progressivism and populism. Think Justin Trudeau and liberal, progressive identity politics in Canada, and Donald Trump and conservative, populist MAGA politics in America. We are now experiencing a swing away from both those trends.

Representing this “new normal” are Prime Minister Mark Carney, for one, and newly elected British Columbia premier, Lorne Doerksen, for another. Both are considered normal because they talk and act like adults in a childish political world. Their political flair is to not have any political flair. They stand out for not standing out.

Olympics Overnight: Canada reclaims gold in women’s hockey, Thompson wins silver in ski cross, and Kamila Valieva struggles in women’s free skate

Here’s what you missed overnight at Day 13 of the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Behind the scenes at circus spectacle Odysseo, it's the horses who hold the reins

It’s almost 4 p.m. on a particularly steamy May afternoon and Cavalia Odysseo rider Chelsea Jordan is putting on her makeup in the back corner of the very humid artistic tent.

She’s already spent some time layering on foundation, and is now into the decorative portion of the 30-minute process, placing a pair of small gems on her forehead and enhancing her naturally sharp cheekbones with some extra contouring.

“This is the messy part of the business,” she jokes as she sticks on fake lashes over an eyelid covered in earth-toned shadow.

It’s odd that makeup is considered the messy part of the day when Jordan spends the majority of her time surrounded by horses, but as with most people involved in Odysseo, the glitzy and glamorous aspects of being a member of the largest touring production in the world aren’t nearly as fun as the time she gets to spend with her four-legged cast-mates.