A late start to the spring sitting
Provincial MLA's won't be returning to the legislature for the spring sitting until budget day on March 19. The Opposition wants the assembly back now. Leader-Post columnist Murray Mandryk discusses the last time this happened, why the current government is doing it, the possible need to be back in session earlier and out-of-province private health care. This week's panel featured Mandryk and Morning Edition host Adam Hunter.
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CBC
a day ago
- CBC
First ministers' meeting in Saskatoon and wildfires in northern Sask.
The Morning Edition's political panel reflects on the first ministers' meeting in Saskatoon, its impact and how everyone got along, as well as the province's reaction to the wildfires in northern Saskatchewan and highlights from the provincial auditor's report. The panel featured Regina Leader-Post columnist Murray Mandryk, Canadian Press reporter Jeremy Simes and Morning Edition host Adam Hunter.
Toronto Sun
3 days ago
- Toronto Sun
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe faces call to bring in military as wildfires rage
Published Jun 05, 2025 • 4 minute read Fire crews near the northern community of Weyakwin, Sask., were doing their best to control wildfires in the area on Saturday, May 31, 2025. Photo by Kayle Neis / Regina Leader-Post REGINA — Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is resisting an Opposition call to bring in the military to combat wildfires that have forced thousands from their homes. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account In a statement Thursday, Moe's office said they recognize the Canadian Armed Forces can play a key role in specific areas, such as aerial evacuations, but said that's not what Saskatchewan needs right now. 'Currently, Saskatchewan's greatest areas of need are for water bombers and firefighting resources, which the military is not able to provide,' it said. His office noted it is keeping in touch with the federal government and is getting help from other provinces to fight the fires, along with supports from the Canadian Red Cross. Marshals are patrolling evacuated communities to prevent looting. Earlier Thursday, the Opposition NDP called on Moe to call in the military, as has been done in Manitoba. 'Every available resource in our country must be deployed to fight these fires. We cannot afford to leave help on the table,' NDP Leader Carla Beck wrote in a letter to Moe. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Saskatchewan is battling 25 active fires and estimates 400 structures have burned. Steve Roberts, with the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, said there has been little rain for a month, and rain is what's needed. 'Weather continues to be problematic,' Roberts told an online news conference Thursday. 'Rain will be a big turning point for these fires but until then we're dug in doing the best we can.' More than 30,000 people in Saskatchewan and Manitoba have been forced to flee their homes ahead of scores of wildfires in recent days, more than 18,000 from Manitoba alone. Smoke from the Prairie wildfires has drifted as far east as Newfoundland and Labrador, and as far south as Florida in recent days, prompting health warnings in some regions. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The major evacuation zones are in and around La Ronge, Sask., where 7,000 have been forced out, and in the city of Flin Flon, Man., where all 5,000 city residents along with another thousand in the surrounding vicinity have had to leave. The Canadian Red Cross set up an emergency evacuation centre in Regina providing meals and a place to stay. Darin Cook was waiting outside the centre with his family for a taxi to a hotel. He said they took a bus Thursday at midnight from Stanley Mission, northeast of La Ronge. 'There were fires all along the highway, a lot of hotspots all over,' he said. 'Everyone was in a rush (to get out).' Fred Cook, also from Stanley Mission, said it was extremely smoky. He's planning to stay with his daughter in Regina, he added. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'It's pretty hard for the kids (to leave), especially the babies,' he said. The fires have also displaced about 6,700 in the Pimicikamak Cree Nation in north-central Manitoba. Pimicikamak Chief David Monias said additional help is coming to his community after he joined other First Nations leaders in calling for adequate equipment and resources. Monias said in a post on social media a crew of 30 to 35 structural firefighters, along with six pumpers, tankers and command teams, are being deployed to the community. Manitoba has 27 active wildfires, a third of which are out of control. Provincial officials said weather and firefighters from Manitoba and elsewhere are keeping the fires from overrunning communities for now. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'The weather over the last couple of days has improved our ability to get some pretty good progress done on these fires,' said Kristin Hayward with the Manitoba Wildfire Service. 'We have had cooler temperatures, a little bit higher humidity (and) winds generally have been low to moderate. We are expecting that general trend to continue.' In Winnipeg, police say they will help out to protect evacuees who are unfamiliar with large urban centres and could be prey for exploiters or scammers. The leader of the organization that represents the northern First Nations that have been evacuated said some of the main concerns are around drug and human trafficking and sexual violence. 'This is proactive effort and not reacting until after it happens. This is making that step to make sure our people are protected,' said Grand Chief Garrison Settee of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manitoba and Saskatchewan declared states of emergency last week to allow various levels of government to co-ordinate resources and support. In northern Alberta on Thursday, the approximately 1,300 residents of the town of Swan Hills were allowed to return to their homes about a week after fleeing from a wildfire. But about 340 kilometres west in the County of Grande Prairie, people were ordered out. Earlier this week, officials with the Municipal District of Opportunity, which covers a dozen small rural communities in northern Alberta, confirmed that roughly half of the structures in Chipewyan Lake had been destroyed by a wildfire on the weekend. Marcel Auger, reeve of the district, said on social media Tuesday that 38 structures were destroyed, including the community health centre, water treatment plant and homes. Chipewyan Lake has 75 people. Liam Buchart, a fire weather specialist with Natural Resources Canada, says wildfires on the Prairies became severe more quickly than normal this week. 'The second half of May dried out slightly earlier than normal across a lot of the Prairies,' he said. 'We're at our second-largest area burned for this time of year in the last decade at least.' — With files from Brittany Hobson in Winnipeg and Jack Farrell and Fakiha Baig in Edmonton World Olympics Toronto & GTA Music Columnists
Toronto Sun
3 days ago
- Toronto Sun
MANCINELLI: It's important to bear witness and see evil with your own eyes
Silence in the face of this kind of horror isn't neutrality — it's complicity The Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Toronto in remembrance of the people murdered and taken hostage at the event in Israel. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / Postmedia Recently, I took the time to visit the Nova Music Festival Exhibition, which is currently in Toronto. For me, a strong ally to the Jewish community, especially in the post-October 7 era, as we witness denialism of the atrocities and a disturbing rise in antisemitism across Canada, it was important for me to bear witness. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account I walked into the Nova exhibit expecting it to be heavy, but I wasn't prepared for the way it would reach into the deepest corners of my heart. Absolutely nothing could have prepared me for what I saw and heard inside those walls. The exhibit begins by painting a picture of what that day was like, showing the lights and music reminiscent of a vibrant festival. You can feel the joy, the unity, the freedom that filled the air before the horror began. Then, like a jarring shift in a dream, the mood darkens. You're surrounded by remnants of that day — charred tents, blood-stained clothes, twisted metal, porta-potties where people tried to hide, full of bullet holes. But it's not just the physical artifacts that hit hardest, it's the stories. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Listening to survivors recount what they lived through was gut-wrenching. One young woman described hiding for hours in a field, texting her family goodbye. Another man showed photos of his friends, now gone, whose laughter once filled the air just moments before everything changed. Their voices cracked, not just from pain, but from the weight of needing to be heard. And as someone outside of the Jewish community, I realized how vital it is for people like me to listen. The Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Toronto in remembrance of the people murdered and taken hostage at the event in Israel. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / Postmedia This exhibit isn't about politics. It's about people. It's about lives lost and lives shattered. It's about the raw human toll of hate and violence. The Nova massacre wasn't just an attack on Jews — it was an attack on humanity, on joy, on the right to dance freely under the stars. I saw myself in those young people. I saw my friends. My siblings. And that's when it truly clicked: Silence in the face of this kind of horror isn't neutrality — it's complicity. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. We must speak because every hateful act chips away at the dignity of us all. We must speak because our Jewish neighbours, friends and family deserve to live without fear. We must speak because justice demands it. What makes the exhibit so powerful is its refusal to let you look away. It doesn't sanitize the suffering, but it doesn't sensationalize it either. It simply tells the truth. And that truth demands a response. As Canadians, we weren't untouched by this massacre. Canadians who went to Nova festival to dance with their friends were also victims, including Ben Mizrachi from Vancouver and Alexandre Look, a young man from Montreal, a hero who was murdered trying to save others hiding in a bomb shelter. The Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Toronto in remembrance of the people murdered and taken hostage at the event in Israel. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / Postmedia It's easy to think, 'This isn't my community,' or 'This doesn't affect me.' But it does. Antisemitism, hatred and terrorism are not just Jewish problems. They're human problems. And if we let them go unanswered, we're all at risk of losing something precious — our shared sense of dignity and justice. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. I left the exhibit changed. Humbled. Angry. Heartbroken. But also, more committed than ever to standing with the Jewish community — not just in words, but in action. Sharing these stories. Challenging hate when I see it. And encouraging others to experience this exhibit for themselves. To anyone who isn't Jewish and wonders if this exhibit is 'for them,' let me be clear: It is. In fact, it might be especially for you. Because we need to bridge the gap between witnessing and action. Between sympathy and solidarity. Visit the Nova exhibit. Bring your friends. Bring your questions. And most importantly, bring your open heart. You'll walk out different than you walked in — and that's exactly the point. — Victoria Mancinelli is Director, PR, Communications and Strategic Partnerships, with LiUNA NHL Columnists Columnists Sunshine Girls Sunshine Girls
