The father of 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki, who went missing in the popular Dominican Republic tourist town of Punta Cana while on spring break with friends, said he has asked authorities to widen their investigation.

One of three B.C. Mounties accused of making racist and sexist comments in group chats held back tears Monday as he described the life-threatening pressures of policing he claimed led to the need for a "safe" space where officers could vent frustrations about the job and co-workers.

NDP Leader Jim Dinn says the high cost of home heating is forcing many residents to make difficult decisions. To help solve the issue, he is asking the Liberal government to remove the provincial portion of the harmonized sales tax from home heating bills.

Beckie Scott has lived many different lives. On Monday, the next chapter of her career began. Scott was named CEO of Nordiq Canada, the national sport organization that oversees cross-country and Para Nordic skiing.

Disasters can strike without warning, and the City of Steinbach is taking proactive steps to ensure they are prepared. 

This evening, from 6 to 9 PM, Napier Emergency Consulting will host a Reception Centre Training session at the Steinbach Fire Hall. 

Steinbach Fire Chief Kel Toews, who leads the city's Emergency Response Team, explains why they are hosting this session. 

“We are looking for volunteers for a Reception Centre. Should there be a disaster, either within the city limits where neighbourhoods need to be evacuated, or it could be a neighbour who's got flooding, forest fire, or issues that they need to evacuate. We would then need to set up a Reception Centre to take in people who have been evacuated.” 

Many volunteer positions are needed, including registration services, food services, transportation, lodging, hospitality, pet services, and more. 

“We will provide training. I mean, you may never actually be called into service. But we need to have people ready to go in, in case the need is there,” Toews says. 

He adds that this initiative has been in the works for some time. 

“We’ve had some service clubs that would have provided this in the past and now we're looking for just the general public. It's a fairly large undertaking if there is an evacuation. So, we need to know that we have people who can fill the roles when the time comes.” 

Those interested in learning more about becoming a volunteer can visit the Fire Hall at 6 PM. 

“When you show up and they go through the initial introduction and what's involved. If you're convinced that you want to be a part of this, they will go straight into the training. It’s a three-hour training session.” 

Toews says a mock disaster is planned for May, which will test how the Reception Centre operates using the training from tonight's session. 

“You will be trained on what is required, what roles are required. And you can pick a role that you want. And after the training, there will be some subsequent training. But like I said, it all culminates in May when we do a full-scale exercise.” 

For those unsure about committing right away, there is some flexibility. 

"We would prefer that we start the training now, but if you need a few days, then yeah, then decide you can either be brought on board a little bit later on." 

For more information, contact Andee Hiebert at [email protected] or [email protected]. 

With files from Adi Loewen

Here's what you need to know about hantavirus, the rodent-borne pathogen blamed for the death of Betsy Arakawa, the wife of actor Gene Hackman. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome has killed at least 34 people in Canada over the past three decades.

Nova Scotia Power is asking the province’s utility regulator for permission to spend $6.8 million to upgrade its cybersecurity.

It includes a family resource centre, new school and recreational facilities. A long-term care model is also part of the plans but has yet to be built. Kyle Moore has the story.

“People around the world are paying attention to what is happening here in the belly of the beast,” Rachel Small, Canada organizer for World BEYOND War and member of the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN), said on the steps of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), where forty percent of the world’s mining companies are traded.

From March 2 to March 5, the Toronto Metropolitan Convention Centre hosted the world’s largest mining conference. The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention drew 27,353 participants and over 1,100 exhibitors from the private sector and state governments.

As the convention kicked off, a protest organized by MISN denounced the greenwashing of the critical minerals sector and its role in fuelling militarism. In solidarity with Wetsuwe’ten land defenders and Chilean, Congolese, Palestinian, Sami, and Sudanese activists, roughly a hundred people marched through Toronto’s Financial District. Unlike in 2023, they didn’t infiltrate the convention centre. 

“Canada is going to start exporting resources that are extracted from Native lands out of the Hudson Bay because it cuts shipping exports by 8,000 km anywhere across Mother Earth,” activist Clayton Thomas-Müller of Pukatawagan Cree Nation said, denouncing how the Churchill Port is bringing a renaissance of colonization to northern Manitoba.

“Where we come from, we are a fishing and a hunting people, and we need water to be healthy,” he said, stressing the looming impacts of industrialization on the region’s pristine lakes and rivers.

The Churchill port is the only Arctic seaport serviced by rail and has long been on the margins. Privately owned by the Arctic Gateway Group (AGG), a consortium of Indigenous and community shareholders, the remote port’s growth is now expected to be exponential. 

The first international critical minerals shipment crossed the Hudson’s Bay in August 2024. As PDAC unfolded, the AGG signed a deal with Hudbay Minerals that doubles the volume of critical mineral shipments, with other agreements on phosphate and ammonium sulphate made in the days following. The port is also tripling critical mineral storage capacity.

With global demand for critical minerals expected to double by 2030, PDAC emphasized critical mineral exploration in northern regions of Canada. Countries are currently aiming to reduce dependency on Chinese supply chains and conflict minerals. But there are other motivations beyond conflict-free cars, phones, solar panels and windmills. Bullet and missile manufacturers are facing global shortages for metals like antimony, and NATO countries are under pressure to meet spending targets.

The Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy emphasizes self-sufficiency and national security in the Canadian minerals sector. Already committing up to $3.8 billion over eight years to critical minerals development, the Canadian government renewed significant commitments to develop the sector on March 3, announcing a two-year extension of the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit until 2027, expected to provide $110 million to exploration investment.

Activists invoked the image of Toronto’s financial district as a pulsing mining capital. But behind the doors of the TSX, the story is looking a little different. 

Canadian mining companies have actually been leaving Toronto to trade on foreign stock exchanges. Early last week, Bloomberg reported an exodus of Canadian mining companies amid Trudeau’s ongoing crackdown on foreign investment—recent moves including shifting headquarters to Switzerland, Ecuador and Abu Dhabi. Barrick is considering relocation to the U.S., with other moves in progress. And this is happening as larger Canadian companies like Teck have been warding off hostile foreign takeover.

So while demonstrators denounced Canadian mining companies profiteering from war and complicit in human rights abuses abroad, some of those same companies are leaving the country, while Canada itself is becoming a target for foreign companies and takeovers amid an intensifying critical minerals race.

Exporting green militarism

While the Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy emphasizes Canada as a source of conflict-free resources, much less is said about minerals’ uses and destinations.

“We know that their business as usual is a world with even greater wealth inequality,” MISN’s Small said. “It’s a world where Indigenous people are removed from their land at gunpoint so Canadian companies can dig up critical minerals used to make the bombs that are bombing other Indigenous people, on their lands, around the world.”

“We’re seeing that become more and more unmasked,” MISN member Miriam Shaftoe told rabble.ca. “In Canada, even before Trump got in, we were increasingly seeing direct investment from the U.S. defence industries into mining projects in Canada.” 

“Every F35 fighter jet has about 900 pounds of rare earths in it,” Shaftoe explained. “Those weapons are being used to bomb civilians in Gaza. It’s that cycle of violence—from extraction to the final product—[where] we see the Canadian mining industry entangled at all stages.” 

Activists called for arms embargoes, such as those against Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to explicitly hold the mining sector accountable. 

“The struggles faced by our Indigenous comrades due to the horrible impacts of Canadian mining companies share significant parallels with the Palestinian liberation struggle where land, identity and sovereignty are at the core of the fight for justice,” Adam Diabas, activist with the Palestinian Youth Movement, said, flanked on all sides by Canadian bank headquarters. 

“We will continue to call for an arms embargo in this upcoming federal election,” Diabas said, calling for pressure at all stages of weapons supply chains. “We are calling for the companies that provide the materials for the weaponry to be sanctioned.” 

“The companies claim that extracting minerals like diamonds, cobalt, coltan, and gold in Indigenous territories make them no longer conflict minerals,” said Nisrin Elamin of the Sudanese Solidarity Collective.

“From Sudan to Turtle Island, these are not conflict minerals. They are genocide minerals,” she said. “It is therefore our duty as people living in proximity to the headquarters where this consortium of corporate murderers sit comfortably, plotting how to up their profits through our death, to disrupt their business as usual.”

Sovereign sacrifice zones

Inside the sprawling convention centre, mining leaders just want to drill. Government officials solicited investment. Investors speculated over the rising prices of silver and gold. All eyes were on Trump’s audit of the Fort Knox gold reserve. 

And while demonstrators demanded the right to refuse mining projects, Indigenous panelists inside were focused on increasing negotiation power and becoming project shareholders.

“Any resource development that happens in Canada, or across Turtle Island for that matter, happens on the traditional lands of the Indigenous peoples here,” said Saga Williams of the Curve Lake Anishinaabe First Nation. 

Williams is a member of the First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC), a national organization representing over 175 First Nations communities across Canada. One of the coalition’s campaigns is to secure Indigenous equity in infrastructure and mining projects worth over $100 million (CAD). “It’s not unrealistic for our communities to be expected to be a part of that,” she said. 

The Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy positions Indigenous participation in the minerals sector as a form of economic reconciliation and environmental stewardship. Williams called for recognition of Indigenous sovereignty in environmental assessments and respect for sovereign Indigenous authority under section 35 of the Canadian Constitution.

“The more that we support and ground ourselves in that space of inherent rights and Indigenous knowledge, the better partners we will be in industry and in resource development within this country,” she said. 

Stuart McCracken, Vice President of Exploration at Vancouver-based Teck, described how the mining company is respecting Indigenous sovereignty in Peru—where they operate the Antamina copper and zinc mine, one of the largest in the world—by circumventing the state. 

“So if we enter in the area and we stake some land that has Indigenous people, under the legislation in Peru, we must immediately go into previous consultations,” he said in a panel.

“What we do, rather than just leaving the Minister of Culture to run that process—and that can take up to two years for them to do that,” McCracken explained, “We will immediately go toward the Indigenous community to really understand what their needs, their concerns, their limits are, and whether there’s an agreement to be had.”

“We recognize that we, as a company, can enable both the Indigenous population but also the government system to be more successful,” he said.

“We want to build and access critical minerals. We can do this in a responsible manner, ensuring that our critical minerals are sustainably sourced,” said Katherine Koostachin, Vice President of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation at the Sussex Strategy Group. “If you want to accelerate critical minerals, you have to ensure Indigenous nations are at the table.”

Koostachin took a pragmatic stance on Indigenous participation in critical mineral development, while stressing that many of the uses for minerals, like electric vehicles that can’t withstand northern climates and terrains, don’t actually serve Indigenous communities. 

It remains to be seen whether this also applies to missiles made with niobium, tanks using thorium, ammunition using cadmium, missiles made with antimony, or nuclear weapons made with graphite. But industry leaders at PDAC were clear about their goals.

“Really, it’s a question of how can we progress our project so we can eventually mine,” said Claudia Tornquist of Kodiak Copper. “The key principle is balance between consulting, engaging, mitigating, and moving forward.”

The post Activists denounce conflict minerals and green militarism at mining convention in Toronto appeared first on rabble.ca.

A B.C. RCMP officer says he showed a “lack of judgment” and regrets comments he made in police group chats, but using “dark humour” was a way to vent frustrations about the stressful job of policing.

Port Coquitlam RCMP Const. Ian Solven is one of three officers from the detachment facing allegations of discreditable conduct and workplace harassment over comments made in group chats on officers’ personal phones and on police messaging terminals.

His comments included remarks about a fellow officer’s weight and about a woman who was at a transitional housing shelter during an investigation, although Solven says he couldn’t recall exactly what he said about her.

Solven and fellow Mounties Mersad Mesbah and Philip Dick deny the allegations against them at the code of conduct hearing that began in Surrey, B.C., last month.

Solven says in his testimony on Monday that a superior spoke to him about comments made on RCMP mobile data terminals, with the officer hinting about using personal phones rather than the terminals.

The constable says policing is a stressful job and first responders often use “different” humour that he’s not proud of, “and it’s unfortunate that it’s come out in this way.”

Solven says there was a running joke about new group chats being created regularly between members using encrypted messaging applications on officers’ personal phones, and he believed the chats were a “private space” where officers talked about work, beer, sports and news events.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2025.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights is known best for enforcing the right to disability services across America’s schools. But under President Donald Trump, it’s taking a frontline role in his political battles.

Trump appointees have halted thousands of pending cases while they open new investigations aligned with the president’s campaign promises. Career staffers have been sidelined and pressured to quit, and those who remain are being ordered to refocus priorities on antisemitism, transgender issues and anti-DEI complaints.

A memo Friday from the civil rights office’s chief announced antisemitism cases are now the top priority, taking aim at colleges where pro-Palestinian protests brought accusations of anti-Jewish bias. That followed a decision to cut $400 million in federal money going to Columbia University, where on Saturday immigration officials arrested a Palestinian activist who was involved in leading student protests.

Hanging in the balance are the types of cases the office traditionally has focused on — students with disabilities who need services they aren’t getting, or students facing harassment tied to their skin color.

It’s normal for new presidential administrations to pause civil rights cases while they get acclimated, but this transition brought a longer and more rigid freeze than others. Trump officials lifted the freeze for disability cases on Feb. 20, and last week, new Education Secretary Linda McMahon said all cases could resume as normal.

During Trump’s first month in office, the Office for Civil Rights resolved about 50 cases, according to a staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. By comparison, the office resolved more than 3,000 complaints in the same window of Trump’s first term, and almost 500 under former President Joe Biden.

Even the most urgent cases, which are traditionally granted exceptions, sat idle during the freeze. Staff lawyers were told not to respond to outside calls or emails, leaving families in the dark.

Another staff member at the civil rights office described desperate emails from parents whose schools refused to make accommodations for their children’s disabilities. “We were just ignoring their emails,” said the person, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Tylisa Guyton of Taylor, Michigan, filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights on Jan. 20 over her 16-year-old son’s repeated suspensions from a suburban Detroit school district, alleging a white administrator was targeting him and a group of other Black children. The teen has been out of school since Dec. 4. Even as investigations resume, she has heard nothing from the civil rights agency.

“He’s still asking every day, ‘When can I go back to school?’” Guyton said of her son.

The memo Friday told staffers antisemitism would be an “investigative and enforcement priority.” It added the memo should not be interpreted as “‘deprioritizing’ any other form of OCR enforcement activity.” But staffers said that’s the most likely outcome as dwindling ranks of employees face heavier caseloads tied to the president’s agenda.

Politics usually play into the office’s priorities to some degree, and Republicans similarly accused Biden officials of going too far when they opened cases into COVID-19 mask bans or in support of transgender students. But several longtime staffers said this is the first time they’ve seen cases tied to political agendas edge out their everyday work.

Trump has called for a total shutdown of the Education Department, calling it a “con job” infiltrated by leftists. At her Senate hearing, McMahon said the civil rights office might be better served if it moves to the Justice Department.

Some cases are moving forward, but others appear to be stalled, Marcie Lipsitt, said a special education advocate in Michigan.

“I’ve said to everyone, ’You’re going to have to fight harder for accountability because there will be no accountability at the U.S. Department of Ed, if there is a U.S. Department of Ed,” she said.

At the same time, Trump’s officials have continued to open their own “directed investigations” — proactive inquiries that depart from the office’s typical work responding to complaints. The office has opened more than a dozen such investigations, many aimed at pressuring universities to stop allowing transgender athletes or to take a harder stance against pro-Palestinian protesters.

It adds up to more work for fewer employees at the office of about 500 workers. Staffers say field offices across the country were hit after dozens of department workers were put on leave in response to Trump’s orders against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Many others took buyouts pushed by the Trump administration, leaving some field offices without administrators in key leadership jobs.

Minor changes to the office’s policies could also carry outsize impact. Complaints to the office can’t move forward unless the filer signs a consent form allowing their name to be disclosed during the investigation. For years, the office sent reminders if the form was not submitted — parents often didn’t know it was required. But an updated case manual from the Trump administration drops the reminders.

Staffers say it means more cases will be dismissed on a technicality.

Some special education advocates have begun filing more cases with state agencies, said Brandi Tanner, an Atlanta-based psychologist and special education advocate. In conversations at a recent conference in California, disability advocates expressed uncertainty and anxiety, Tanner said.

“’It’s kind of like, we’re very scared about what else is going to continue to come down the pike,” she said. “Are students going to lose their rights?”

___

Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.

___

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Collin Binkley And Heather Hollingsworth, The Associated Press

Hamilton Police are investigating an accident where a stolen car went out of control and flipped, seriously injuring an occupant. Police say that at approximately 2:10 this morning a single motor vehicle was travelling northbound on Upper Ottawa Street at Redbury Street with four occupants, when the driver lost control causing the vehicle to roll over. A passenger was ejected from the vehicle and was found lying in the southbound lanes. The unidentified male was transported to the hospital with life threatening injuries. The male is now listed as critical but stable at this time. Three other unknown males fled the scene prior to police arrival.

The investigation has found that the motor vehicle, a 2006 Honda Civic had been reported stolen earlier this month. Investigators are asking for the public’s assistance and are asking drivers in the area at the time of the collision to check their dash cameras as well as homeowners to review any camera footage that they may have.

Hamilton Police Collision Reconstruction Unit continues to investigate the collision and anyone with information is asked to contact the Collision Reconstruction Office at 905-546-4753 or [email protected]

For those who wish to provide information anonymously, they can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or submit anonymous tips online at Crime Stoppers Hamilton’s Website.

Folk music isn’t exactly my area of musical expertise. The most intimate experience I’d had with the genre prior to last month’s Folk Alliance International was volunteering at my hometown’s Calgary Folk Music Festival, but that was 13 years ago. As fun as that was, it was nothing compared to the sheer scale and ambition of this conference.

Back in town for the first time in six years, Folk Alliance was held at the downtown Sheraton from Feb. 19 to 23. I decided to go check it out on Friday night to see what it was all about. I’d interviewed FAI’s executive director Jennifer Roe prior to the event, but I needed to see how it all went down in practice.

What I saw exceeded any expectations I could’ve had. The expansive hotel environment made the whole experience overwhelming by default, but that was in addition to being surrounded by people, many of them from around the world, some of them playing guitars or pianos, sometimes with folks forming crowds around them.

The real festival magic happened between the 7th and 10th floors, where basically every room had a late-night private showcase going on, starting around 10:30 p.m. Yes — the FAI conference literally takes over a hotel and puts on little shows where guests would’ve otherwise been staying. Pretty cool, eh?

Of course, this means either enduring an agonizing wait in line for the elevator (public showcases took place on floors below those ones) or making that character-building journey up the stairs to the seventh floor. Two people greeted me on two separate occasions saying, “Feel the burn!” upon them noticing I was out of breath. At least they understood the struggle!

I eventually bumped into two industry pals — shoutout to Jérémy Spellanzon and J-P Sauvé — and basically let them lead the way while I followed. The entire experience was full-on sensory overload, and in the best kind of way if you love this kind of music. 

Over two nights, I watched bits and pieces of sets from Lisa LeBlanc (whom I’d watched play an official showcase the night before), the Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Tennyson King, R.O. Shapiro, Maya Killtron and Geneviève Racette as I was rapidly moving from room to room (and floor to floor). Refreshments and snacks were given out in many rooms, including a “sober room” with strictly non-alcoholic drinks, and the Ontario & Friends Room on the same floor offering beer (they had to resort to Asahi after running out of Ontario-brewed stuff).

Another element I really loved was the “musical chairs” event that took place in room 908. Four artists, each with their chosen instrument (usually an acoustic guitar), take turns playing one of their songs one by one. It’s an intimate and communal experience both for the artists and those watching them, and even Ron Sexsmith was among the participants on Saturday night. 

The conference was also great for networking, so long as you didn’t mind yelling from time to time given the noise and commotion around you. Meeting Basia Bulat and Lisa LeBlanc was a nice ribbon on top of an already thrilling experience — one I enjoyed so much that I didn’t let my claustrophobia deter me from going for a second straight night. It was a super fun experience, and one I sincerely hope doesn’t take another six years to come back.

This article was originally published in the March 2025 issue of Cult MTL.

For more Montreal music coverage, please visit the Music section.

The post Folk Alliance International brought some magical music moments to Montreal in February appeared first on Cult MTL.

Crews are establishing an action plan, the B.C. Wildfire Service says.