This may seem like a silly thing to say, but once upon a time, the only way to get music was to listen for it. You turned on a radio or you bought a record.

If it sounded good, there was a chance the song might become a hit. That’s what mattered: the sound of the record.

That all began to change in the 1970s, and in less than ten years, sound began to matter less. How the song looked became the thing.

Critics laughed at the notion of a “music video” in the early days. But then came MTV, the world’s first 24-hour music video channel. They called it “illustrated radio”—and it worked.

After that we got MuchMusic, VH1, M2, Edge-TV, MuchMoreMusic, MuchLoud, The Box, and dozens of others around the world. And for years and years, if you wanted a chance to make it big, you had to make a music video. Yes, it was expensive, but too bad—it was all part of the game.

During the heyday, some videos cost millions and millions of dollars. Remember the video for “Scream” by Michael and Janet Jackson back in 1995? In today’s money, that video, which runs four minutes and 47 seconds, cost just under $15 million. Madonna made three videos with budgets of more than $10 million. You can make a feature-length movie with that kind of cash.

Pretty singers with mediocre songs often became stars, while less-attractive performers with good songs had a real chance of being passed over.

The art of the video affected the art of moviemaking. It influenced the way we look at television, not to mention fashion, language, politics, gender fluidity, LGBTQ issues, and so much more. Videos may have altered our attention spans—which kind of concerns me, because this program is an hour long and I need you to hang in there with me.

Music videos exported soft power from the West—especially the United States—to the rest of the world. At one point, MTV was one of the most influential creators and disseminators of culture—and by “culture” I mean America.

That was then. Music videos are still an art form and still necessary (well, mostly necessary) for promoting music, but things just aren’t what they used to be.

How did we get to this point? This is the rise, fall, and future of the music video.

Songs heard on this show:

• Captain Beefheart, Lick My Decals Off, Baby
• David Bowie, Ashes to Ashes
• The Buggles, Video Killed the Radio Star
• Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer
• Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit

Eric Wilhite has a playlist.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on these stations.

• 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7pm
• Q107/Toronto – Sunday night at 9pm
• Live 88-5/Ottawa – Saturdays at 9am and Sundays at 6pm.
• 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener – Sunday nights at 11pm
• FM96/London – Sunday nights at 8pm
• Power 97/Winnipeg – Sunday nights at 10am and 10pm
• 107-3 The Edge/Calgary – Sundays at 10am and 10pm
• Sonic 102.9/Edmonton – Sunday at 8am and 8pm
• The Zone/Victoria – Sunday at 9am and 9pm
• The Fox/Vancouver – Sundays at 10anm and 10pm
• The Goat Network/Interior BC
• Surge 105/Halifax – Sunday at 7pm
• WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown – Mon-Fri at 9pm

Don’t forget there’s a  podcast version (along with hundreds of others) available, in case you miss an episode. Get them for free wherever you get your podcasts.

 

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Wet Leg, featuring Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, is one of the most exciting bands to come out of the UK this decade. Here are a few facts about them that might have escaped your attention so far.

First of all, the band is from the Isle of Wight. Rhian and Hester were friends for about ten years before they formed the band. Hester had a job making jewelry while Rhian was a stylist.

(2) They found their name by playing a game with emojis. When the emojis for “wet” and “leg” came together, they decided that was it. Well, maybe that’s the story. Another explanation is that “wet leg” is Isle of Wight slang for non-locals.

(3) When they first started playing live, they were booked for hour-long sets. The problem with that is they only had 35 minutes’ worth of music. They had to fill time with covers and extended jams of their own songs. It was…awkward.

© 2026 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Angelina Stamper listens to the voicemail her son left her almost every day.

“Hey Mom, happy birthday, just calling again. Give me a call back.”

The message was recorded on Oct. 17, 2024. Six weeks later, her 28-year-old son, Sheldon Stamper, took his own life.

Now, more than a year after his death, the Osoyoos, B.C., mother says she is still searching for answers about what happened during his time in psychiatric care, and why she cannot access his medical records.

“I just want to know what happened, I just want to know why it happened,” said Stamper.

Stamper says her son had been struggling with his mental health and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. In September 2024, after what she describes as his third suicide attempt that year, Sheldon was admitted under involuntary care to the psychiatric ward at Chilliwack General Hospital.

Despite his history and diagnosis, Angelina believes the care he received was inadequate.

“Days and days without someone coming in,” she said. “He would ask the doctors to change his prescriptions, ask to just talk to someone, they would not come to see him for days.”

Stamper says she was told by hospital staff that her son was last seen in his bed at 8 a.m. on Nov. 29, 2024. At approximately 9:15 a.m., he was found dead in a bathroom. During that time, she says, he was unaccounted for.

“They went to find him for his medication and couldn’t find him. He wasn’t in his bed anymore. They knocked on the bathroom door. Nobody answered,” she said.

In the months following his death, Stamper says she has repeatedly asked for access to her son’s medical records in an effort to understand what led up to that morning. She says Fraser Health denied her request, stating that access was being refused because it was for her own personal reasons ‘rather than acting on behalf of the deceased.’

“What are they hiding? Why can’t I see what my son was on, what medications, what was following up to his death? I can’t see any of that. They won’t give me any information on that,” she said.

In a statement, Fraser Health told Global News it has been in ongoing communication with the family, as well as with the staff and medical teams involved in Sheldon’s care. But Stamper disputes that characterization, saying the health authority only responded to her again last week.

Stamper says she remains determined to find out more about what happened in the final hours of his life.

 

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Some B.C. business owners are taking aim at the province’s 2026 budget over changes they say will leave them paying more to protect their shops.

Under the new budget, the province is requiring some professional services to begin charging a provincial sales tax.

That includes businesses that provide security services, which were previously exempt from collecting the seven per cent tax.

Some business owners in downtown Victoria say the PST will add to the costs they already pay to keep their storefronts safe from crime and social disorder.

“It’s another thing, absolutely — it’s another hit, and they just keep coming,” Mary Lou Newbold, who owns the Mayfair Optometric Clinic, told Global News.

She said she is already paying about $1,000 a month in security costs and when the changes to the PST take effect on Oct. 1, that will cost her roughly another $1,000 each year.

Business owners say they are now struggling to figure out how to add those costs.

“All businesses are sort of facing death by a thousand cuts,” Christina Clarke with the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce said.

“There are just so many expenses upon expenses. It’s a really challenging time for businesses.”

Themis Security, which provides private security for companies and does downtown patrols, said it is currently in a hiring freeze while it waits to see how the PST exemption removal affects businesses.

“For us, for our pricing as well, we are going to have to take into account that bills are going up substantially, more than a normal inflation rate,” René Rossignol with Themis Security said.

B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey said the province’s PST rules have not kept pace and this change addresses that gap.

“B.C. has kind of fallen behind what attracts PST and so we looked at the other PST provinces and what they captured and what they didn’t and we aligned with them,” she said.

 

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The Surrey Police Union says it is concerned after the Surrey Police Board cut $46.95 million from the budget for the upcoming year.

The reduction came from the provisional 2026 budget, which the board endorsed in November.

The union stated, in a release, that the cut represents the annual cost of approximately 87 officers, with the average annual cost of each officer being $158,510.

“Cutting nearly $47 million from policing at the 11th hour, while Surrey is facing an extortion crisis and while SPS is being asked to expand operations and assume additional districts, is reckless,” said Ryan Buhrig, president of the Surrey Police Union, in a release.

“You cannot demand more policing, more visibility and more capacity while simultaneously gutting the resources needed to deliver it.”

This follows the news on Wednesday that Surrey Police Service Chief Norm Lipinski expressed concern about being told they will need to take over District 4, Cloverdale, from the RCMP before they have enough officers to do so.

The union says Surrey residents should be asking the police board if there will be times that officers won’t be able to respond to calls, or if there will be cuts to critical teams, such as school liaison and mental health units.

The union said there is also a concern that fewer officers may be available for patrol and proactive policing.

“At minimum, the Police Board must publicly disclose what services will be cut,” Buhrig added in a statement.

“The community should not learn about reductions only after response times rise, proactive patrol drops, or specialized supports disappear.”

The City of Surrey is also in the midst of an extortion crisis.

“Our members are under tremendous stress,” Buhrig told Global News on Thursday.

“We have an unprecedented extortion crisis in Surrey that’s drawing members away from front-line policing. And at the same time, we’re being directed by the province to take over additional districts.

“Now is not the time to be cutting police budgets. Now is the time to give us the resources to make sure that Surrey is safe.”

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke, however, said she is pleased to have a budget that furthers the balance between protecting public safety and keeping taxes low.

“We are funding exactly the number of police officers they asked us to, 189 officers are being funded,” Locke said on Thursday.

“And so I’m sure once they fully understand the budget, they will see it differently.”

According to Surrey police, as of Monday, Feb. 16, since the beginning of the year, there have been 53 reported extortion cases in Surrey, with 11 shots fired, two related arsons and 31 victims, 17 of whom are repeat victims.

The Canada Border Services Agency said on Tuesday it had launched probes into 296 people who were “brought to our attention by B.C Extortion Task Force partner agencies as persons of interest.”

The latest statistics, which are as of Feb. 4, represent a sharp increase from just a month ago, when the task force said that just over 100 CBSA investigations were underway.

Immigration enforcement officers are reviewing the files for “potential inadmissibility,” meaning the CBSA may try to remove the individuals from Canada for immigration violations.

“As a result of these investigations, 32 people have been issued a removal order, including 10 people who have already been removed from Canada,” the CBSA said in a statement.

–with files from Stewart Bell

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Eric Dane, the celebrated actor best known for his roles on “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Euphoria” and who later in life became advocate for ALS awareness, died Thursday. He was 53.

His representatives said Dane died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known also as Lou Gehrig’s disease, less than a year after he announced his diagnosis.

“He spent his final days surrounded by dear friends, his devoted wife, and his two beautiful daughters, Billie and Georgia, who were the center of his world,” said a statement that requested privacy for his family. “Throughout his journey with ALS, Eric became a passionate advocate for awareness and research, determined to make a difference for others facing the same fight. He will be deeply missed, and lovingly remembered always. Eric adored his fans and is forever grateful for the outpouring of love and support he’s received.”

Dane developed a devoted fanbase when his big break arrived in the mid-2000s: He was cast as Dr. Mark Sloan, aka McSteamy, on the ABC medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” a role he would play from 2006 until 2012 and reprise in 2021. In 2019, he did a complete 180 from the charming McSteamy and became the troubled Cal Jacobs in HBO’s provocative drama “Euphoria,” a role he continued in up until his death.

Dane also starred as Tom Chandler, the captain of a U.S. Navy destroyer at sea after a global catastrophe wiped out most of the world’s population, in the TNT drama “The Last Ship.” In 2017, production was halted as Dane battled depression.

In April 2025, Dane announced he had been diagnosed with ALS, a progressive disease that attacks nerve cells controlling muscles throughout the body.

ALS gradually destroys the nerve cells and connections needed to walk, talk, speak and breathe. Most patients die within three to five years of a diagnosis.

Dane became an advocate for ALS awareness, speaking a news conference in Washington on health insurance prior authorization. “Some of you may know me from TV shows, such as ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ which I play a doctor. But I am here today to speak briefly as a patient battling ALS,” he said in June 2025. In September of that year, the ALS Network named Dane the recipient of their advocate of the year award, recognizing his commitment to raising awareness and support for people living with ALS.

Dane was born on Nov. 9, 1972 and raised in Northern California. His father, a Navy man, died of a gunshot wound when he was 7. After high school, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting, landing guest roles on shows like “Saved by the Bell,” “Married…With Children,” “Charmed” and “X-Men: the Last Stand,” and one season of the short-lived medical drama “Gideon’s Crossing.”

A memoir by Dane is scheduled to be published in late 2026. “Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments” will be released by Maria Shriver’s The Open Field, a Penguin Random House imprint. According to Open Field, Dane will look back upon key moments in his life, from his first day at work on “Grey’s Anatomy” to the births of his two daughters and learning that he had ALS.

“I want to capture the moments that shaped me — the beautiful days, the hard ones, the ones I never took for granted — so that if nothing else, people who read it will remember what it means to live with heart,” Dane said in a statement around the book’s announcement. “If sharing this helps someone find meaning in their own days, then my story is worth telling.”

Dane is survived by his wife, actor Rebecca Gayheart, and their two teen daughters, Billie Beatrice and Georgia Geraldine. Gayheart and Dane wed in 2004 and separated in September 2017. Gayheart filed for divorce in 2018, but later filed to dismiss the petition. In a December essay for New York magazine’s The Cut reflecting on Dane’s diagnosis, Gayheart called their dynamic “a very complicated relationship, one that’s confusing for people.” She said they never got a divorce, but dated other people and lived separately.

“Our love may not be romantic, but it’s a familial love,” she said. “Eric knows that I am always going to want the best for him. That I’m going to do my best to do right by him. And I know he would do the same for me. So whatever I can do or however I can show up to make this journey better for him or easier for him, I want to do that.”

 

© 2026 The Canadian Press

A Quebec costume designer is stepping into the global spotlight at the 2026 Winter Olympics, dressing some of the world’s top figure skaters as they compete on the sport’s biggest stage.

Mathieu Caron, a former ballroom dancer from Quebec, has been creating elaborate costumes for more than a decade. He says his fascination with glittering fabrics and dramatic designs began early.

“I was very fascinated by the costumes, all the bling-bling and the fabrics. So I decided to go to fashion school,” Caron told Global News.

After studying fashion at LaSalle College in Montreal, Caron launched his company designing clothing for ballroom dancers. His work soon expanded into the figure skating and ice dancing world.

By 2018, his creations had reached the Olympic podium. Caron designed the costumes worn by Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir during their gold medal-winning performance set to Moulin Rouge.

Now in Milan for the 2026 Winter Games, Caron says 28 athletes from 10 countries are wearing his designs. Among them are American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates, as well as Japanese skater Ami Nakai.

Caron says each costume can take up to 150 hours to complete, from the first sketch to the final rhinestone. Caron says the process involves close collaboration with athletes, coaches and choreographers to ensure the design complements the music and enhances movement on the ice.

“We have meetings with athletes, but also with the coaches, choreographers. We talk about the music and the vision of the program,” he said.

His studio team includes other designers, cutters, seamstresses, pattern makers, and painters — all working to bring the garments to life.

The price reflects the labour involved. Caron says costumes typically range from $3,500 to $8,000, depending on the hours required and the complexity of the design.

While figure skating remains a central focus, the designer said he hopes to expand into other creative fields, including Broadway musicals and designing full looks for touring artists.

For now, Caron says he feels fortunate to see his creations glide across Olympic ice, and in some cases, onto the podium.

For the full story, watch the video above.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says out-of-control immigration levels are overwhelming the province’s core social services and has announced a referendum will take place nine months from now, asking residents to weigh in on nine questions addressing both that and possible changes to Canada’s Constitution.

(Scroll down to see the questions)

In a televised speech Thursday night, Smith said the Oct. 19, provincial referendum will be primarily focused on finding out how Albertans want the government to “deal with the issue of immigration, as well as steps we can take as a province to strengthen our constitutional and fiscal position within a united Canada.”

Smith said the changes her UCP government has determined the province needs to make to immigration are a significant departure from the status quo.

“These were far and away the issues most strongly identified by Albertans during last year’s Alberta Next panel town halls and online submissions, and in my view, it is time to act on them,” Smith said in a 13-minute televised speech that the government paid to air during the 6 p.m. primetime news hour.

“The fact is, Alberta taxpayers can no longer be asked to continue to subsidize the entire country through equalization and federal transfers, permit the federal government to flood our borders with new arrivals, and then give free access to our most-generous-in-the-country social programs to anyone who moves here,” Smith said.

The premier noted the province will be unveiling a large deficit in next week’s budget and lower oil prices have contributed to less revenue.

According to the Alberta government, each $1 drop in the price of oil means roughly $750 million fewer royalties for the province.

However, Smith said social services costs going to more new residents is making Alberta’s budget woes even worse.

“This is not only grossly unfair to Alberta taxpayers, but also financially crippling and undercuts the quality of our health care, education and other social services.”

Mount Royal political scientist Lori Williams challenges that assertion.

“To suggest that this budget deficit is primarily caused by immigration — that non-citizens who come to Alberta are filling emergency rooms and classrooms and that’s where problems coming from — it creates, I think, a distorted picture of what’s actually going on,” Williams said after Smith’s speech aired.

Danielle Smith has been Alberta premier since 2022 and Williams believes Thursday’s speech aimed to redirect public attention away from the province.

“People are concerned very much about affordability, they’re concerned about health care, and they are concerned about education. And the government has invested in some areas, has been addressing some of the problems that have been raised — but they persist.”

“People, when a government has been in power for years, start to notice if promises aren’t fulfilled. They start ask questions and they start make more demands of a government.”

Bradley Lafortune, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, said a bad news budget is not unheard of in a province that gleans so much of its income from oil and gas royalties.

“That’s nothing new in Alberta. But what is new, I think — at least with this degree of focus and tone — is the shift in blame towards immigration and newcomers,” he said after listening to the speech.

“Fundamentally, this is a Trump-style, MAGA government that is doing their best to imitate the current Republicans in the United States,” Lafortune said.

“And what that means is blaming newcomers, cutting services, reducing taxes, and then telling everyone that we need to do more with less, at the same time as friends and insiders are receiving massive amounts of grift on the public dollar.”

Lafortune thinks Albertans should prepare for a “very bad budget” next Thursday that he predicts will contain more cuts to frontline services and the administration of them.

“What I mean by bad is it’s going to be bad for Albertans, working middle-class Albertans. I think its gonna be very bad.”

Smith said in the short-term, the government will not be implementing drastic cuts in the 2026 budget but will instead be cutting unnecessary bureaucracy, improving efficiencies in program delivery (such as more income testing for social programs) and prioritizing needs before wants as much as possible.

“The approved wage increases for our doctors, nurses, and teachers will remain in place so we can continue to attract the skilled professionals needed to catch up with our growth,” Smith said.

According to Statistics Canada, Alberta’s population surged by 202,324 residents in 2023. That’s the largest annual increase in the province’s history, the equivalent of 550 people moving to Alberta every day.

While the bulk of the growth came from international migration, Alberta also shattered a national record for interprovincial migration, most of whom came from Ontario and B.C.

The province’s population growth peaked in the third quarter of 2023, with it dropping off significantly in 2024 and 2025, according to the most recent Statistics Canada data.

“I think the federal government started realizing that they’ve been pushing too strongly on the population growth through different types of migration, international migration,” Carleton University economics professor Christopher Worswick said of the decline that began in 2024.

“So we saw caps on the number of international students coming in. I think that needed to be done because the program was growing just way too fast.”

Premier Smith blames the former Justin Trudeau Liberal government for Alberta’s population woes, saying over five years almost 600,000 people moved to Alberta, pushing the population over five million people.

“Ottawa throttled our most important job creating industries and prioritized immigration away from economic migrants and instead focused on international students, temporary workers and asylum seekers,” Smith said.

In 2022-23, the province ran a $4.95 million “Alberta is Calling” campaign aimed at attracting skilled workers to the province from other parts of the country.

“Although sustainable immigration has always been an important part of our provincial growth model, throwing the doors wide open to anyone and everyone across the globe has flooded our classrooms, emergency rooms and social support systems with far too many people, far too quickly,” Smith said.

Overcrowded classrooms and a strained health-care system has been a documented issue in Alberta for well over a decade and Williams said blaming it on newer residents is a deflexion of responsibility.

“There’s no question that we have seen very large numbers of newcomers to Alberta. Part of that is because the Alberta government has invited people, citizens of Canada to come here and to work in Alberta.

“To somehow suggest that the problem has been created by immigration — as if these problems didn’t exist before those immigration numbers ticked up — I think is inaccurate.”

She fears it will create strife and inflame racial tensions.

“I think that impression is potentially quite problematic, particularly for those who are already struggling with people’s hostility toward them.”

The October referendum, a year before the province’s scheduled general election, could be even longer.

Last year, Smith promised a referendum on separation in 2026 if citizens gathered the required number of signatures on a petition.

One citizen-led petition to be put to lawmakers this spring could lead to a referendum vote on making it a provincial policy that Alberta stay in Canada.

Another petition effort, with a deadline for signatures in early May, seeks a referendum question about pulling the province out of Confederation.

Smith said Thursday that strengthening Alberta’s “constitutional and fiscal position within a united Canada” and immigration were the biggest issues her Alberta Next panel heard as it toured the province last year.

One of the issues tabled for debate was whether Alberta should withhold social services from some immigrants. The panel was propped up by calls from in-person attendees who at times called for mass deportations.

In January, Smith’s United Conservative Party government walked back what it called a “premature” decision to cut off temporary foreign workers from provincial health-care coverage, including those who had already obtained work permits.

The ministry in charge said, at the time, the move was on pause pending review.

On Wednesday, Smith’s chief of staff, Rob Anderson, reposted a social media infographic about immigration numbers and invited readers to watch the premier’s televised address.

“This absolute insanity needs to stop. It will,” he wrote.

The executive director of the premier’s office, Bruce McAllister, also pointed to the same social media post to sound off on population growth.

“Does their contempt for Canada’s core values and traditions drive them to flood our borders with millions from societies not built on the same foundations that have made us thrive?” McAllister said on X.

“Why import from nations with failed systems when our Judeo-Christian heritage and principles have worked so well here? It almost feels like these elites are ashamed of what built this great country.”

https://x.com/McAllisterBruce/status/2024120368802550219

Smith was asked Wednesday if her government shared McAllister’s values. She didn’t directly answer but said western society is based on “the Socratic Judeo-Christian tradition.”

“However, Alberta was also created since 1905 based on the immense diaspora communities that come here,” she said.

She said the federal government has made changes to refocus on economic migrants and that the previous system “broke.”

“It was the No. 1 issue that we heard,” she said, referring to the Alberta Next panel.

As it stands right now, the referendum in October will ask Albertans nine questions concerning immigration and the Constitution:

Immigration

1. Do you support the Government of Alberta taking increased control over immigration for the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels, prioritizing economic migration and giving Albertans first priority on new employment opportunities?

2. Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law mandating that only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and individuals with an Alberta-approved immigration status will be eligible for provincially-funded programs, such as health care, education and other social services?

3. Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for social support programs as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring all individuals with a non-permanent legal immigration status to reside in Alberta for at least 12 months before qualifying for any provincially-funded social support programs?

4. Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for public health care and education as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta charging a reasonable fee or premium to individuals with a non-permanent immigration status living in Alberta for their and their family’s use of the healthcare and education systems?

5. Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring individuals to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate, or citizenship card, to vote in an Alberta provincial election?

Constitution

6. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to have provincial governments, and not the federal government, select the justices appointed to provincial King’s Bench and Appeal courts?

7. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to abolish the unelected federal Senate?

8. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to allow provinces to opt out of federal programs that intrude on provincial jurisdiction such as health care, education, and social services, without a province losing any of the associated federal funding for use in its social programs?

9. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to better protect provincial rights from federal interference by giving a province’s laws dealing with provincial or shared areas of constitutional jurisdiction priority over federal laws when the province’s laws and federal laws conflict?

With files from Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

After operating out of St. Saviour’s Anglican Church for 40 years, the Penticton Soupateria is being forced to look for a new home.

The volunteer-driven soup kitchen on Orchard Avenue received an eviction notice last week, effective May 31.

It’s a decision the church says wasn’t easy, given a big part of its Christian faith is to feed the hungry.

“It’s heartbreaking. It’s very hard,” said Bishop Lynne McNaughton, speaking on behalf of the Diocese of Kootenay of the Anglican Church of Canada. “People are sad, very sad not to be able to continue it. We struggled with this for a long time.”

The volunteer-driven organization serves free meals to those in need, whether they’re housed or unhoused.

Its service has shifted over the years from indoor dining to now providing bagged lunches to go.

The church has been gifting the space to the soup kitchen but says social disorder has become too much for an older congregation to handle.

“It’s become a place where the unhoused population is hanging around there with a lot of garbage and drug paraphernalia,” McNaughton said.  “Every morning there’s fresh garbage to clean up and dangerous things like needles.”

McNaughton added that safety concerns have also been raised by some parishioners.

“People sometimes don’t come to church because it feels unsafe,” she said.

Lauraine Bailie,  past president of the Penticton Community Soupateria Society and a 30-year long volunteer, said the board was shocked to receive the eviction.

“The first question is what do we do so we can continue looking after the people who depend on us,” Bailie said.

Bailie added that she believes the problems could have been mitigated.

“I don’t think it’s insurmountable,” Bailie said. “I think with communication and openness with one another we can resolve it.”

The soup kitchen serves about 100 people every day, 365 days a year.

“It’s an essential service,” said Aaron McRann, CEO of Community Foundation of the South Okanagan Similkameen. “I don’t think people realize how critical the Soupateria services are to our community.”

The foundation is one of the groups now trying to support the organization and do what it can to help save the vital service.

“We’re available for funding requests if necessary, if it comes down to that. We’re also looking at real estate opportunities. We know a fair amount about the local real estate market, so we’re helping them look at different locations,” McRann said.

“We’ve brought together a number of food service organizations to talk about how the whole network of food providers can help support their transition to a new service model.”

Soupateria is hoping to get the eviction extended until the end of September to give it more time to find a viable path forward.

“The people that we are caring for will be fine. They will be looked after. We are not going to abandon these people,” Bailie said.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The women’s winter warming shelter on Avenue C that opened late last year may see a new location.

Concerns about the close proximity to the Salvation Army Men’s Emergency Shelter have kept the city looking for another location, worried about the congregation of people.

A new location, 130 Idylwyld Drive North, has been proposed to city council as a new drop-in centre.

“It has been a challenge over the years to find locations. The city only really got into this in the last few years,” said Lesley Anderson, director of planning development for the City of Saskatoon.

“And these types of facilities do generate quite a bit of interest and feedback from adjacent landowners, so we’ve been working through that, and we know there’s challenges with every location.”

The proposed long-term location is looking to have distinct spaces for both men and woman.

Existing funding from the federal government would go into purchasing the building with money from the city to renovate it.

Tribal Chief Mark Arcand of the Saskatoon Tribal Council says more services are needed in the new building compared to the resources they had in the previous Avenue C building.

“Showers are really important, proper bathrooms, you now, so we can actually monitor what’s going in there because again, we have some people that are still breaking the rules and sneaking in, you know, addiction situations,” Arcand said.

The new location is close to other service organizations like Big Brothers and Big Sisters, as well as The Friendship Centre.

Arcand says he isn’t concerned about moving the concentration of people as those nearby services aren’t dealing with the same challenges in homelessness, and they may help people attending the drop-in shelter.

“They’re running programs and services. I think what it’ll do is potentially support this opportunity. So it’s easier access, I’ll say, for them to go on … over to the Friendship Centre and … access some of their services, whether it’s an AA meeting or whatever they’ve got going on,” said Arcand.

If the city decides to go through with the purchase, the Idylwyld location is set to open in November, but Arcand is pushing to have it open sooner to be prepared for cold temperatures.

As for the Avenue C location, Arcand says that instead of closing it, he would like to see it used as a backup winter shelter, since a lot of money and resources have already gone into the building.

Talks will continue in the next city council meeting on Feb. 25th.

Watch above for more on the proposed drop-in shelter.

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