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

Neo-Nazi group members plotted to kill Free Press reporter

Disturbing details of a plan to kill a Free Press reporter who had infiltrated a white nationalist hate group were revealed for the first time Wednesday.

Shooting, stand off net nine year prison sentence

Daniel Larsen had been out of prison just five days when he shot up a Point Douglas house and sparked a 10-hour armed standoff with police that shut down a portion of the Disraeli Freeway.

Larsen, sentenced last week to nine years in prison, believed residents of the Grove Street home had sold fentanyl to his son, court heard.

“The speed with which Mr. Larsen was able to obtain a firearm, formulate a plan and become criminally involved is… horrifying from a public safety standpoint,” Crown attorney Amy Wood told provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald.

Larsen, 37, pleaded guilty to reckless discharge of a firearm for the June 14, 2025, incident and two related weapons offences.

Shocking development

HOCKLEY VALLEY, Ont. — It’s not too often you get into a new vehicle, look at the interior, and say to yourself, “Wow, this is different… in a good way.”

Automakers tend to stick pretty close to defined norms, and when they differ, it’s not always successful. I’m looking at you, Toyota Yaris and Nissan X-Trail.

So, stepping into the 2027 BMW iX3 was refreshing. A bright parallelogram of a main touchscreen is closer to the driver than most, aided in no small part by pushing the instrument cluster to a narrow band just under the windscreen.

The effect is to clean up the look of the dash but without moving to a centre-mount instrument panel like the Yaris and X-Trail. The most valuable information (speed, battery charge, range) is right in front of the driver, visible above the top rim of the steering wheel.

Just say no (to deficits during good economic times)

When a political party pledges to run small, “manageable” deficits if elected, it almost always means it will go deeper into the red if it wins government.

It’s human nature.

After all, as a government, if you get the blessing of the public to spend beyond your means, what’s a few billion more a year in overspending?

The problem is, it doesn’t usually end there. When those same politicians seek re-election, they often want permission to post even larger deficits. In some cases, they’ve abandoned the idea of balancing the books altogether, arguing perpetual deficit financing is acceptable, as long as the debt doesn’t exceed a certain percentage of the economy.