Winnipeg police are asking for help in searching for a woman who hasn’t been seen in more than a month.

25-year-old Doris Trout was last seen near Inkster Boulevard and McPhillips Street on April 12.

She is 5’1″ with a medium build, brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information can contact the WPS Missing Persons Unit at 204-986-6250.

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Warmer temperatures aren’t the only thing returning to southern Alberta.

Tourism Lethbridge CEO Erin Crane said she is seeing more travellers stopping at the information centre, arriving at a pace similar to pre-pandemic levels.

“Going back to even 2019, we’re starting to see some of those same numbers coming in,” she said.

“Our visitor stats are about the same, and that is our goal for this year, to recapture where we were.”

Read more:

How soaring gas prices are expected to impact summer tourism in southern Alberta

That boost is also extending into the hospitality sector. Lethbridge Lodging Association (LLA) officials say business in the month of March was three times higher than last year.

They say they believe the reason behind that increase is the ability to host multiple events like the 2022 Brier with minimal public health restrictions.

“We absolutely needed that March from several perspectives,” LLA project manager Shilpa Stocker said. “Not only the revenue perspective, but also to show we can do it.

“We can host events. We are capable of providing the hospitality that Lethbridge is known for.”

Read more:

Organizers expecting good turnout for 2022 Brier after COVID-19 restrictions relaxed

While the current conditions have more travellers coming into the city, representatives like Crane are also hitting the road to promote the area at different events across the province.

“We are competing with all the other destinations for those visitor dollars,” she said. “It’s really important that we’re out, telling people about Lethbridge and the opportunities — and we’re differentiating ourselves from them.”

The hope is the successful spring will be a catalyst for an even busier summer as tourists begin planning their vacations.

“We are looking forward to hosting,” Stocker said.

“It’s beyond survival for us. It’s something we’ve needed for the last couple of years.”

“We are excited for a busy summer season,” Crane said.

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Police are asking for tips from the public as they try to find a suspect in connection with a sexual assault near a south Edmonton school over the weekend.

In a news release issued Monday night, police said the attack reportedly occurred at about 2:50 p.m. on Sunday “in the heavily treed area north of Johnny Bright School.”

“A female youth was longboarding when she was chased down by an unknown male who then attacked and assaulted her,” police said. “The youth was able to free herself and called police.”

Police said the suspect was described as being about 40 years old, about six-feet tall and having an average build. They noted his voice was described as deep and raspy.

He was wearing black pants, a black hoodie, and a “blue/white” medical mask. Police noted he is described as having black curly hair and that “his black curly beard was coming out the bottom of his medical mask.”

“He may have sustained injuries to his face,” police added.

“Police are asking residents and business owners in the area to review their CCTV footage and anyone who may have been driving in the area to review dashcam footage for any individuals matching the suspect’s description.”

Anyone with any information about the suspect or the attack itself is asked to contact the Edmonton Police Service at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone. Anonymous information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at http://www.p3tips.com/250.

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The worlds of two Jason Kenneys collided Monday when Alberta’s premier met an American man with the same name who often gets mistaken for the politician on Twitter.

Premier Jason Kenney tweeted about his brief encounter with Jason Kenney of Virginia on Monday.

“Ok #ableg, once and for all: Left: @jasonkenney — the friendly guy from Virginia who has been taking a lot my heat on Twitter. Right: Me,” Kenney wrote in his tweet.

“Was great to host Jason at the Canadian Embassy tonight!”

The two Kenneys even snapped a picture together.

Ok #ableg, once and for all:

Left: @jasonkenney – the friendly guy from Virginia who has been taking a lot my heat on Twitter.

Right: Me.

Was great to host Jason at the Canadian Embassy tonight! pic.twitter.com/odQAcYAUWu

— Jason Kenney 🇺🇦 (@jkenney) May 17, 2022

 

Premier Jason Kenney holds the Twitter handle @jkenney, while the other Jason Kenney has @jasonkenney.

Read more:

A tale of two Jason Kenneys: Virginia man often mistaken for Alberta premier on Twitter

Used to receiving messages from people trying to get in touch with the politician, the American Kenney’s first mix-up with the Albertan Kenney came in the early 2000s. As the Albertan Kenney’s political career continued, the American Kenney — who works at a non-profit — started to see more people interacting with him accidentally.

But the American Kenney always seems to have fun with the mix-ups.

Um, excuse me, I worked at a Borders and was Babar at local elementary schools thank you very much. https://t.co/ILjGfJV4Oj

— Jᴀsᴏɴ Kᴇɴɴᴇʏ (@jasonkenney) April 9, 2022

When speaking to Global News in 2021, the American Kenney said he hopes the humour he provides from the misdirected tweets bring a little laughter during a stressful time.

My cabinet didn't go anywhere this holiday season. It's firmly anchored into the wall. https://t.co/QBB2tUE2bs

— Jᴀsᴏɴ Kᴇɴɴᴇʏ (@jasonkenney) January 4, 2021

While the American Kenney still deals with several instances of mistaken identity, he said the premier has reached out in the past before officially meeting with him in person on Monday.

— With files from Morgan Black, Global News

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A northeast Edmonton intersection remained closed Monday evening as police continued an investigation into a weapons complaint that also appeared to result in a collision involving a police vehicle.

“Officers responded to a weapons complaint earlier this afternoon and when police located the suspect vehicle, a short criminal flight event occurred,” an EPS spokesperson said in an email. “Members made direct vehicle contact with the suspect vehicle in the area of 153 Avenue and 45 Street and multiple suspects were apprehended.

“The matter is still under investigation. No injuries have been reported at this time.”

Images captured by a Global News crew at the scene show a black sedan that had the front end touching the driver’s side of a white SUV. The airbags in the SUV had clearly been deployed. The images also show an EPS vehicle directly behind the sedan and another EPS vehicle next to the sedan.

Police did not provide details about the nature of the weapons complaint. They did not say how long they expected the intersection to remain closed.

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave the strongest hint yet Monday that he would like to pay less for Twitter than his $44 billion offer made last month.

Musk told a Miami technology conference that a viable deal at a lower price would not be out of the question, according to a report by Bloomberg News, which said it viewed a livestream video of the conference posted by a Twitter user.

Read more:

Elon Musk puts Twitter deal ‘on hold’ over spam bot data — but he’s ‘still committed’

Also at the All In Summit, Musk estimated that at least 20% of Twitter’s 229 million accounts are spam bots, percentage he said was at the low end of his assessment, according to the report.

The appearance came a few hours after Musk began trolling Twitter CEO Paraj Agrawal, who posted a series of tweets explaining his company’s effort to fight bots and how it has consistently estimated that less than 5% of Twitter accounts are fake.

In all, the day’s events bolstered theories from analysts that Musk either wants out of the deal or is seeking a lower price, largely due to a huge decline in value of Tesla stock, some of which he has pledged to finance the Twitter acquisition.

Twitter shares closed Monday down just over 8% at $37.39, below where the stock was just before Musk disclosed that he was Twitter’s largest shareholder. Musk made the offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share on April 14.

On Friday Musk tweeted that his plan to buy Twitter was placed on temporary hold as he tried to pinpoint the number of fake accounts on the social media platform. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said the hold was pending details of Twitter’s calculation that fake accounts are less than 5% of its users.

In tweets on Monday, Agrawal acknowledged Twitter isn’t perfect at catching spam. He wrote that every quarter, the company has made the estimate of less than 5% spam. “Our estimate is based on multiple human reviews of thousands of accounts that are sampled at random, consistently over time,” Agrawal wrote.

Estimates for the last four quarters were all well under 5%, he wrote. “The error margins on our estimates give us confidence in our public statements each quarter.”

Musk, using his favorite platform, responded with a smiling emoji of poop, then asked how Twitter’s advertisers know what they’re getting for their money.

Read more:

Elon Musk looking to use less of his own wealth in Twitter deal, sources say 

Tesla shares closed Monday down nearly 6% at $724.37. They have lost about one-third of their value since the trading day before Musk disclosed his Twitter stake.

Musk did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The All In Summit said in an email that it would post the video of Musk’s appearance in the coming days.

© 2022 The Canadian Press

Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford occasionally referred to a black binder filled with highlighted notes during the Ontario Election leadership debate, which served as an underlying issue during the 90 minute sparring match.

Even before the debate began, the Ontario Liberal Party tweeted an image of Ford preparing for the verbal joust by placing a black folder on his podium and tucking away a notepad provided by the TVO — which hosted the debate on behalf of a consortium of broadcasters.

Shoot… Doug's binder is missing some notes! Good thing the cheap slogans are still in there 😅 #onpoli pic.twitter.com/Xr15KABqXA

— Ont. Liberal Party War Room (@OLPWarRoom) May 16, 2022

The presence of Ford’s notes was then highlighted by debate moderator Althia Raj who pointed out the position of the broadcast consortium on the issue.

“The leaders were asked not to bring cheat sheets, props or briefing books so that this could be an unscripted conversation,” Raj said.

Read more:

Party leaders clash over affordability, healthcare and environment during debate

Ford, who was seen occasionally glancing at his notes at key moments during the debate, defended the presence of the binder and viewers attitudes towards it.

“There’s nothing wrong with putting notes to make sure you’re organized,” Ford told reporters after the debate. “Guess what? People don’t care about that.”

Ford’s opponents pointed out, however, they followed the instructions from the broadcast consortium and kept their notes off the podium, choosing to speak from memory.

Ford’s reliance on notes was often referenced by his opponents during the debate as evidence of the PC party scripting Ford’s talking points.

“I heard Mr. Ford speak and it sounds like he’s reading the script from four years ago,” Del Duca said.

Read more:

‘Have you talked to a nurse lately?’: Health care at heart of Ontario election debate

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, whose podium stood beside Ford, noted his perceived dependency on his talking points.

“He referred to it quite a bit. That was his choice, that was his decision,” Horwath said.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner pointed out the PC leader’s focus seemed to be on slogans over solutions to the issues presented by the moderators, and suggested Ford was looking for talking points to deliver his jabs.

“I think Mr. Ford is really good at delivering lots of slogans,” Schreiner charged. “I don’t know if that’s what he was looking down at, like, ‘Hey, did I get the right slogan in here or not?'”

Read more:

Ontario Votes Roundup: The gloves are off, but did anyone land a punch?

PC campaign insiders also defended Ford’s use of the binder and what they believe was a positive impact on his debate performance.

“Clearly having the binder is serving well because he is clearly winning,” the insider told Global News.

Election day is on June 2.

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A B.C. dad said he hopes that by sharing a recent experience about his son’s birthday party, he can help bring about some change for those who may be viewed as different.

David Chen is a dad of four, three with special needs, he explained. One of them, Max, is in kindergarten this year.

Max, who has autism, experienced a lot of challenges becoming comfortable enough to attend school, Chen said. Even on the first day, Chen said he was called within half an hour to come and get Max because “he couldn’t handle it.

“He just started full days of school about a month ago,” Chen said. “So imagine, doing three-quarters of the year, doing partial days.”

Chen said Max still struggles with focus and social settings and struggles to fully communicate all the time.

But for his sixth birthday, Chen said the family wanted to do something special as a birthday party is a “rite of passage.”

He said they wanted to have an all-class party so they picked a venue and sent out invitations.

“Unfortunately, we got one person that said yes, two people that said no and 16 that didn’t say anything,” Chen said. “It was kind of an empty feeling.”

He said after his story started getting attention, five of those 16 parents did reach out to him.

Read more:

B.C. to launch ‘circle of care’ for neurodiverse kids but parents have many questions

Chen said he is thankful Max seems to have forgotten about it but only a few weeks earlier another child in the class had a birthday party and 16 of the 19 kids showed up, including Max, and Chen said he had a wonderful time.

“So when you hear that, you feel it,” Chen said.

He said he’s not pointing the finger at anyone or blaming anyone but he put out a tweet about the experience to bring awareness and he has received hundreds of responses from strangers telling their own stories.

“The worst, I had someone that said someone made a fake party for me and I showed up and nobody showed up,” Chen said.

“Another one that said ‘I remember this 30 years ago’. Can you imagine that these echoes are affecting everyone from that far back?”

My autism spectrum disorder kid is the different kid in the class. We invited all his classmates to his birthday party today & only 1 showed up. Difficult to explain to my kid & that kid's mom that only one classmate came. Not making assumptions but still an empty feeling day. pic.twitter.com/D2tSGL7iP1

— David Chen, concerned citizen 陳冠余 (@DavidChenTweets) May 14, 2022

Chen is now working with the PAC at his son’s school to create a guide on how to have a successful birthday party and incorporate everyone.

“Nobody wants to have this happen to them,” he said.

He also arranged with Max’s teacher to have an in-class party for his son.

Read more:

Thousands of cards pour in as “Canada’s Grandpa” turns 110

“We all take part in how we shape our community,” Chen said and he wants to continue sharing messages of love and acceptance.

He said the biggest takeaway from their story is not to be afraid to ask why someone is different and to learn from that.

“I think that if we can understand the differences, the strengths, and the needs we can actually get beyond that, we can help people shine,” he said.

“And that’s what I want to see, for all of our kids to have a chance to shine.”

-with files from Aaron McArthur

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

At this time of year, Sajan Mandair’s raspberry field should be full of blossoms and bees, buzzing from cane to cane to pollinate his crop.

As of Monday, however, the six-acre property in Abbotsford, B.C. was all but barren — a delayed harvest that Mandair attributes to an exceptionally cold and wet spring season.

“None of the blossoms have opened up yet,” he said, standing in the rain between bushes. “It’s been rainy. It’s been cold … It’s slowed down the growth of the plants.”

His plants will still bare fruit, he added, but many of them are stunted. It’s one bad year after another, Mandair said, pointing to a row of canes that were burned during last year’s deadly heat wave.

Read more:

Canada’s spring has been cold so far. Why it may linger for longer

Farmers in B.C. have been beset by weather woes in the past two years, including scorching temperatures, wildfires and catastrophic flooding.

The recent bout of drizzly, frigid weather is adding another layer of difficulty, said the University of British Columbia’s Sean Smukler, slowing down harvests in all parts of the province.

“It doesn’t mean they can’t catch up, but it’s definitely not a great start to the season,” the associate professor in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems told Global News.

“For some crops, it won’t be a problem. For others who are reliant on pollination — blueberries, for example — they might miss a really important window to get the crop pollinated.”

According to Armel Castellan, warning preparedness meteorologist for Environment Canada, the near future holds little relief for B.C. farmers. A winter-like pattern of persistent storms keep coming in from the Pacific, he said.

“We definitely have a little ways to go before we see something quasi-normal. Overall, even beyond this week, the signal is still for colder than seasonal conditions for probably two weeks, maybe even another month.”

This spring has set records in some parts of the province, Castellan added. Nanaimo saw its wettest April on since 1892, and Comox has gone its third-longest period without reaching a 15-degree day.

Read more:

B.C. announces $228M to help farmers, ranchers impacted by floods

Mandair, who has been the head of his family farm for about seven years, said he’s concerned about the future as the weather patterns keep changing.

“The bees in this cold weather, who knows what’s going to happen to them?” he asked.

“With all these different environmental changes we’re having, we need to adapt to that and mitigate those risks. We need to figure out ways to grow more indoors.”

If farmers can’t adapt, he added, the community’s food security is at risk. Grocery store prices are going up and some consumers may not be able to afford fresh produce imported from elsewhere.

“It’s very stressful. With interest rates going up, with fuel prices going up — everything across the board is going up, fertilizer, labour,” Mandair explained.

“There’s a certain threshold we can charge our customers too. It’s hard to keep increasing the price because at a certain point, our customers are going to say … we can’t have this.”

Read more:

Extreme heat should be labelled a natural disaster, Canadian report urges

As B.C. farmers continue to struggle, Smukler said the provincial government can help by making crop insurance easier to obtain and ensuring farmers have access to all the information they need about weather and climate adaptation.

The province’s agriculture minister, Lana Popham, said B.C. has a “suite of programs” for insurance that kick in if there’s a weather-related event, but they won’t cover everything.

“We had a difficult year for cherries a couple of years ago. They have insurance programs to cover that,” she explained. “Like all insurance programs it doesn’t make you whole and so you really depend on the next-best season. There’s a lot of fingers crossed right now.”

Popham urged consumers to continue buying local and for the moment, consider cooler climate products, like bok choy, which are “the very best right now.”

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The City of Regina is taking additional steps to provide accessible and reliable paratransit services to those in need.

The focus is on increased services for recreation programs including parks, concerts, bowling alleys, movies, swimming pools and more.

Read more:

Soaring gas prices stalling summer road trips for Canadians: survey

“The City of Regina is making leisure activities more accessible to individuals experiencing disabilities with better booking options, greater flexibility and improved trip times for paratransit customers,” said Kim Onrait, executive director of citizen services in a press release Monday. “We are very pleased to introduce this program as recreation promotes active and healthy lifestyles, and contributes to quality of life for everyone in our community.”

The additional services of the Paratransit recreation program include:

• Extra service for same-day short notice trips between 9 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.
• Additional peak-hour service available for trips to and from programs from 7-9 a.m. and 2:45-5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.
• Trip times that will better coincide with the start and end times of recreation programs and leisure activities.
• Expanded eligibility to include individuals with disabilities who didn’t qualify for paratransit service previously.
• No additional charge for trips up to five kilometres outside of city limits for recreation and leisure.
• Recreation charter service will be available from June to August up to 100 kilometres out of Regina city limits, at half the charter rate.
• Trips can be booked outside of service hours for recreation and leisure trips provided that the standard of two trips per hour is met.

Read more:

Sky-high gas prices fuel rampant demand for electric vehicles

As well, customers are able to bring any equipment or devices needed for the recreation programs with them.

The services are now available to the public.

Customers can book their trip by emailing Paratransit paratransit@regina.ca or by calling 306-777-7007.

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.