In the mid-70s, David Bowie was a mess. He was drinking a lot. His cocaine intake was off the charts. And he was convinced that he was some kind of alien who was being pursued by witches looking to steal his vital essence, which is why he took to storing his urine in the fridge. Oh, and for a while, he fell to less than 100 pounds because all he would eat for meals was milk and red peppers.

This being the 70s, the police were often curious about what sort of illegal things rock stars like Bowie were up to. On December 1, 1974, after the final show of the Diamond Dogs tour, there was a party. It was decadent.

Suddenly, a bunch of plainclothes cops armed with handguns broke down the door. Bowie retreated to a bedroom where he was able to flush his stash. Whatever was left was claimed by Bowie’s bodyguard, Tony Mascia.

He took the rap for his boss, keeping Bowie from being arrested on serious drug charges.

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

Before there was X Factor and all the Idol and Got Talent TV shows, there was The Gong Show. It was conceived as an insane half-hour of absurdity by TV executive Chuck Barris. It debuted in 1975 and ran for 500 episodes.

There was often nothing serious about the amateur contestants who performed for the panel of judges. If they couldn’t stand you, one of them struck a big gong and your time was done.

John Lee was a radio DJ who also played in a band called The Hard Luck Band. In about 1979, John appeared singing a cover of The Eagles Desperado. Much to his surprise, the judges loved his performance, and he won that particular episode, escaping with his dignity and a little cash.

Why do I mention this? Because John Lee is the father of Amy Lee of Evanescence.

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

Alberta’s technology minister is set to hear from residents in the central region tonight on what they think of artificial intelligence data centres.

Nate Glubish is scheduled to be in Lacombe for the first in a series of town halls.

Glubish has spent years crafting an AI strategy and wooing investors to build enormous computing complexes — and the large power supplies they require — in the province.

But data centre development has been met with fierce pushback from some residents concerned about water use, pollution and the potential impact on electricity bills.

Some opponents say the government’s consultations, because they came after major approvals and announcements, are disingenuous.

Premier Danielle Smith promises the AI boom will generate billions in royalties and taxes, use limited amounts of water and lower electricity transmission costs.

Smith is set to join Glubish for a virtual town hall on data centre development Aug. 27.

Two other in-person events are scheduled near other planned data centre projects.

On Thursday, Glubish is to host a town hall in Sturgeon County, north of Edmonton, followed by one Sept. 11 in Grande Prairie.

Sturgeon County is set to be the home of a $13-billion data centre complex from Meta, the tech titan behind Facebook and Instagram.

 

Smith has said Alberta’s grid operator would use surplus energy to power Meta’s centre until a new natural gas-fired plant, called the Greenlight Electricity Centre, starts powering it in 2030.

Hundreds of people gathered outside Sturgeon County’s office earlier this month to protest the Meta plant.

In the Municipal District of Greenview, near Grande Prairie, another AI industrial park is being proposed by O’Leary Digital Limited, led by celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary.

Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation has taken that potential development to court, arguing the First Nation wasn’t adequately consulted before the municipal district permitted the diversion of six billion litres of water per year.

Last week, a Court of King’s Bench justice dismissed an application from O’Leary Digital Limited to strike the First Nation’s application for a judicial review of the project’s water licence.

Some projects have hit other roadblocks.

Last week, the province’s utility commission denied an application to build a natural gas facility that would have powered a massive data centre complex in the small agricultural town of Olds, less than 100 kilometres from Lacombe.

The Alberta Utilities Commission said the natural gas plant project is too close to the surrounding community.

Last month, a rural municipality bordering Calgary voted to pause new data centre proposals, while the Rocky View County government works to pin down applicable rules.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

U.S. President Donald Trump’s pause on his proposed 50 per cent tariffs against Canada brings “relief” for businesses, but the uncertainty over the trade relationship continues, some industry groups said.

“Let’s be clear: the tariff delay provides relief on both sides of the border. Businesses may not be closing up shop with this news, but an extension doesn’t bring the certainty that a signed interim deal would,” said Candaice Lang, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in a statement.

With less than two hours to go before the deadline for his new tariffs, Trump took to his preferred social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday night to announce that the levies had been paused since a deal could be on the table.

“I have paused the 50% Tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three day period, based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!” Trump wrote in his post.

https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2089901462742569352?s=20

Prime Minister Mark Carney did not mention a deal on the table but added that Canada and the United States had made “substantial progress” in trade negotiations, but “important work still needs to be done.”

https://x.com/MarkJCarney/status/2089917753620578567?s=20

Washington had agreed to pause the tariffs until Friday while talks continue, Carney said.

Canadian businesses need stability, Lang said.

“We know that stability is in short supply and businesses will take any ounce they can get. This limbo state is not anyone’s preferred outcome — time is of the essence,” she said.

The removal of tariffs would be a step in “the right direction,” said Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, in a statement.

“But we need to see if progress was made on the existing sectoral tariffs (steel, aluminum, lumber, autos) to fully evaluate any overall interim deal,” Kelly added.

A key trade irritant for the U.S. is the provincial boycott on American liquor, which the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States says has caused exports of American spirits to drop by more than 70 per cent.

“As discussions continue over the next few days, we encourage leaders on both sides of the border to reach a negotiated solution that gets American spirits back on retail shelves in all Canadian provinces and returns the spirits sector to a zero-for-zero tariff framework,” said Chris Swonger, president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, after Trump’s announcement.

The odds of securing a comprehensive trade deal before the U.S. midterm elections in November went up after Tuesday’s developments, said Scotiabank economist Derek Holt.

“If a deal that extends CUSMA and lowers uncertainty in a meaningful way were to be achieved, then it would be positive for Canadian economic growth and negligible for US growth,” Holt said in a note.

“It would buoy market and business sentiment toward Canada. It could put at ease consumer worries,” he added.

The Canadian dollar appreciated slightly against the U.S. dollar following Trump’s announcement.

Following Trump’s social media post, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement that the trade deal “will include comprehensive market access for all American goods, economic security commitments, digital trade alignment, and many important provisions that will continue to protect our market and American workers, along with our Canadian partners.”

https://x.com/USTradeRep/status/2089905312337658144?s=20

Trump also revived talk of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which was shelved after a 2021 executive order from then-U.S. President Joe Biden.

“The great Keystone XL Pipeline, long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden, may be awoken from the grave!” Trump said, later posting an AI-generated image of him pulling the pipeline out of a grave.

The pause came after Trump and Carney spoke over the phone on Tuesday afternoon, and Greer met with Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and chief negotiator Janice Charette, who are leading Canada’s trade efforts in Washington.

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

If you’ve walked around Toronto, you might have noticed plaques scattered around the city. Some are new, some are old, and Heritage Toronto is trying to encourage people to stop and give them a read — through a weekly short-form video series.

In a social media campaign dubbed ‘Plaque Fridays,’ they zero in on one location and its history or unveil a new plaque.

The series is hosted by Heritage Toronto plaques co-ordinator Meg Sutton, who explains the site’s significance. Each video also features a person wearing a pigeon mask and cooing along or a stuffed version of the bird, providing comedic relief to some otherwise heavy topics.

“We’re leaning into the joke to encourage people to notice the plaques they’ve been walking — or in the pigeon’s case flying — past all along, poking a bit of fun at ourselves, but also adding some levity and joy,” said Sutton.

For Light Naing, marketing and communications co-ordinator at Heritage Toronto, short-form video is an accessible format.

“It’s bite-sized and it’s fun and it’s not necessarily reading,” he said.

“We just wanted to present it in a fun, engaging way, add some comedic relief to it, add some humour to it because that’s kind of the format that people are really absorbing right now,” Naing said.

Plaque Fridays are the group’s best performing social media content to date, with viewership taking off after a popular video from February during Chinese Heritage Month in Ontario was published.

The plaque commemorates the hand laundry businesses in Toronto’s first Chinatown. It recognizes Sam Ching, one of the city’s earliest recorded Chinese residents, who ran a laundry business downtown starting in 1878.

The video opens with Sutton standing beside the plaque before following her on a walk through the surrounding blocks.

As she narrates the neighbourhood’s history, archival photos and newspaper clippings of the city’s first Chinese immigrants are shown across the screen. The video lands somewhere between documentary and casual explainer, with an appearance by the “pigeon” providing a light touch.

That video’s popularity was surpassed by the City Park Apartments video from June, which now has about 40,000 views. The video shows Sutton walking through the apartment complex near Church and Wellesley streets, credited as one of the starting points for the LGBTQ+ community’s growth in the area, as well as old photos spanning the years since it opened in the mid-1950s.

Since Heritage Toronto started the weekly videos, there’s been a lot more community engagement with the organization, said Naing.

They’ve been getting more requests for plaques, Sutton said. “The hope is that Plaque Fridays get people thinking about what stories they would like to see on a plaque.”

The plaques program has existed since the 1970s, originating with a former department of the city called the Toronto Historical Board.

“Heritage Toronto adopted it and now kind of evolves and expands it. There’s over 900 plaques in the city, so a lot more Plaque Fridays to go,” said Sutton.

Heritage Toronto is a registered charity and an arm’s-length agency of the city with an education mandate. Toronto’s plaques program is primarily application-based, through the Heritage Toronto website.

“It’s one of the strengths of our program because it allows for unknown histories to be brought forward and have a platform for those voices,” said Sutton, who is part of a two-person plaques team.

Heritage Toronto also says it is the most active English-language plaque program in North America. According to Sutton, the organization adds about 40 new plaques to the city every year.

“The applicants can be anyone. They could be developers working on a heritage building, or they could be experts in a field of history of an area. It could be a concerned neighbour or a citizen.” said Sutton.

Extensive consultation and community work goes into each plaque.

Sutton describes a careful research-to-plaque process: she and a colleague draw on archives and community oral histories to get the story right and ensure all voices are considered. That material is then distilled into roughly 250 words, written at about a Grade 5 reading level. The whole process typically takes about six months, though most of that time is spent manufacturing the plaque itself.

Naing said it takes a couple of hours to film and edit a Plaque Fridays video that’s about a minute long.

The organization has been trying to reach a younger audience, and those who don’t usually engage with Toronto’s history. The project has been a success on that front, it said.

Naing said the filming process often draws curious people who come over to read the plaque.

“The same reaction comes from the Plaque Friday posts, where people share that they recognize streets or places near them and discover the history of a particular building or the area generally,” Naing said.

“And that is truly like what we’re trying to do, right? We’re promoting our plaques, yes, but like we want people to know that there’s history in every corner.”

© 2026 The Canadian Press

For Ken Mercedi, the rusted drill rod, chain and plane engine scattered around the lawn of his Uranium City, Sask., home are more than just relics of the past.

“Everything is a memory,” he said, pointing to an old ore cart transformed into a planter by his niece, located across the street.

Born and raised in the northern settlement, Mercedi left when he was 18 before eventually returning for another eight years.

Now, he and his family return to the area each summer — a tradition continued for nearly two decades.

“You just have that connection that you can’t get away from,” he said.

That connection is reflected throughout his property, where remnants of the community’s heyday have found a new home.

Uranium City was established by the provincial government in 1952 as uranium mining brought workers and their families north. The area, once considered a thriving town, had a population of nearly 2,500 and was equipped with local amenities such as a hotel, a hardware store and a dairy shop, Mercedi said.

But this all came to an end in 1982, when the Beaverlodge Mine abruptly closed, leaving the community largely abandoned.

Decades later, fewer than 100 residents remain, but remnants of that era are still visible throughout the community. Abandoned buildings, including the former CANDU High School, stand as reminders of Uranium City’s former prosperity.

“I had good memories of that school,” said Tim Beckett, a former resident of Uranium City who moved from the area in 1980.

“I spent some very good years there, and I had a lot of friends there, and to see it in such bad shape, very dark, it had a very strange feeling to it,” Beckett said, recalling the first time he returned in 1996.

Beckett is among several former residents working to preserve their memories and stay connected through reunions over the years. One reunion in Alberta’s Cyprus Hills in 1998 is said to have drawn in more than 750 people.

“That was the highlight for us, that’s for sure,” said Len Kilbreath, a former Uranium City resident and organizer of that noteworthy reunion.

Mercedi says he used to go to the reunions “quite regularly” when he lived in La Ronge, Sask., with the events taking place across the province.

“I remember one we went to, it was close to 600 people, and there were people there from all over the world,” he said. “Scotland, there was a guy from California.”

For Kilbreath, the reunions also offer a way to connect with residents who stayed in the town after he left, bonding over shared experiences of a remote community isolated from the rest of the province and the country.

“With the town closing down, so many of us felt like we never had a hometown. So we just brought it with us wherever we went,” Kilbreath said.

Four companies eyeing Uranium City’s potential

As global demand for nuclear energy and the fuel that powers it grows, exploration companies are turning to Saskatchewan’s uranium-rich Athabasca Basin to get a piece of the in-demand commodity.

More than 30 companies are actively exploring the Athabasca Basin, according to the Saskatchewan government, four of which are in the Uranium City area, located about 800 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.

Exploration company Triton is among those drilling in the region, searching for new uranium deposits alongside areas that were mined decades ago.

“There’s lots of work going on,” Troy Marfleet, Triton’s chief operating officer, told Global News in an interview.

“The locals are saying this is the busiest summer in the last 20 years.”

Unlike some newer areas being explored, Uranium City already has a long history of uranium mining and extensive drilling data, Marfleet said.

“The nice thing about the Uranium City area is we already know that there’s lots of uranium here,” Marfleet said. “Now it’s just about finding how much and what the extent of it is.”

Triton is targeting lower-grade uranium deposits closer to the surface and is also reviewing historic samples that were drilled by previous companies but never mined, Marfleet said, adding that an open-pit mining method would also be used.

“So there’s no new technology that we have to develop or anything like that, which is good,” Marfleet said.

Scott Evans, Triton’s president and director, said existing airstrips, roads and power lines could give the area an advantage if a viable resource is proven.

“We really think that we have a huge advantage if we can prove up our resource to be able to get it out of there in a quicker manner,” Evans said.

Many of the investors buying into Triton’s project are what Evans called “Saskatchewan patriots,” seeking a share of one of the province’s most coveted resources as global demand increases.

Keeping investment local and within the province is another motivation for these investors, Evans said.

“It’s exciting just to be part of the uranium and the nuclear renaissance,” said Travis Penna, who is part of the company’s independent board of directors.

In June, Eagles Plains Resources announced it had approved exploration activities to begin in the Uranium City area. Fortune Bay and Appia are two other companies exploring the area, Marfleet said.

The long road ahead to mining

But renewed exploration does not guarantee that Uranium City will see another operating mine.

Its remote location presents significant logistical challenges. There is no direct all-weather road connecting the community to the south, meaning supplies and equipment are brought in by barge during the summer or over an ice road in the winter.

“So you really have to plan your program ahead of time in order to utilize the ice road as much as possible,” Marfleet said.

A permanent, year-round road could make exploration and future development easier, Marfleet said, but building one would be a significant undertaking.

And even if exploration proves successful, a new mine would not happen overnight.

The pace of drilling, the amount of uranium discovered and future uranium prices will all play a role in determining whether deposits can ultimately be developed, Marfleet said.

Explorers say it could be close to a decade before uranium extracted from a potential new operation is shipped.

Still, the possibility of renewed mining has generated cautious optimism among people who call Uranium City home — and among those who remember what it was like when the town was thriving.

Residents say they have been welcoming to exploration crews and are hopeful that new investment can bring jobs and infrastructure to the region.

“They’re good. I’ve had no problem with any of them,” Mercedi said.

“The long-term vision would be to bring that town back to life and provide jobs for people up north and turn something that’s kind of a liability to the government into a major asset,” Evans said.

For Mercedi, the exploration activity is another chapter in the story of a community he has never quite been able to leave behind.

Whether the renewed interest leads to another uranium boom remains to be seen.

But for a community shaped by uranium mining, the drilling underway around Uranium City is offering a glimpse of what its next chapter could look like.

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

One of the great things about vinyl is that you have a 12×12 palette on which to create artwork that says something about the release.

For example, everyone knows the cover for Nirvana’s Nevermind with the naked baby underwater in a pool chasing a dollar bill on a fishing hook. What’s the message? The designer Robert Fisher wanted to make a punk rock statement about the evils of late 20^th-century capitalism mated with the cynicism felt by the Gen Xers of the day.

Nirvana loved the concept because it captured their anti-corporate feelings. It has become one of the most famous album covers of all time.

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

A New Brunswick woman whose remains were discovered in Ontario has been identified decades after her death through advances in DNA technology, giving investigators new leads in a homicide case and highlighting the growing role of genetic genealogy in solving cold cases.

Niagara Regional Police announced that Brenda Marie LeBlanc was identified in 2025 after her remains were found during the demolition of a Niagara Falls home in 2023. Investigators believe the remains may have been at the property since the mid-1990s.

LeBlanc’s death was ruled a homicide, but police initially had no way of determining her identity.

“We expended absolutely every traditional investigative means that we could possibly use to try to identify these remains,” Niagara Regional Police Insp. Andrew Knevel said.

After exhausting conventional methods, investigators turned to investigative genetic genealogy, a technique that uses DNA recovered from remains to locate biological relatives through genetic profiles that have been voluntarily made available for law-enforcement searches.

Kelly Miles, a forensic biology professor at the University of New Brunswick, said the technology is transforming criminal investigations.

“A perpetrator could be convicted based on DNA that a third or fourth cousin has uploaded,” Miles said. “They’ve never done the swab, they’ve never had a DNA test.”

Police said a familial DNA link was established and later confirmed through direct DNA comparison, ultimately identifying LeBlanc and opening new avenues of investigation into her life and death.

Miles said the technique has become an important tool for cases that have gone cold.

“This phenomenal technique is so helpful that it’s really opened a lot of investigative doors for cases that have become cold,” she said.

Advances in forensic science have also made it possible to generate DNA profiles from increasingly small and degraded samples. Miles said biological evidence can remain usable for decades.

“Fifty years, 60 years is not unheard of,” she said.

The RCMP says it first used investigative genetic genealogy in New Brunswick in 2020 to identify human remains and employed the technique again in June in another case that was nearly two decades old.

The growing use of the technology has also raised privacy concerns. Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner has warned that genetic genealogy can reveal biological relationships involving relatives who never consented to having their DNA information used in investigations.

Miles acknowledged the concerns but said the public safety benefits can outweigh the loss of privacy.

“It’s worth a little bit of loss of privacy for the potential gains to not only find the perpetrator but get them off the streets,” she said.

The science continues to evolve rapidly. Miles said researchers are developing faster DNA testing methods, techniques that require even smaller samples, and tools capable of predicting certain physical characteristics from genetic material.

She added that artificial intelligence could dramatically reduce the time required to build family trees and conduct genealogical research, a process that can currently take years.

While technology has finally answered who Brenda Marie LeBlanc was, investigators say they are still searching for answers about how she died and who was responsible. Police are asking anyone with information about LeBlanc or the circumstances surrounding her death to come forward.

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

A Montreal couple says a surrogacy journey they hoped would finally help them become parents instead ended in heartbreak, financial disputes and a lawsuit against the agency they hired.

Kristina Kasparian and Jeremy Cohen say they spent 11 years trying to have a child. After years of fertility struggles and repeated miscarriages, they turned to surrogacy and signed on with Ontario-based Canadian Fertility Consulting (CFC).

The couple was matched with a surrogate who became pregnant with their embryo in 2023.

“Everything was developing normally and we were extremely excited, but also we felt very fragile because we had never gotten that far in a pregnancy on our own,” Kasparian said. “I always miscarried around six to eight weeks.”

Their hopes were shattered in December 2023 when they learned the baby’s heartbeat had stopped. Their child was delivered stillborn days later.

“Getting the news from the surrogate, it was almost unbelievable,” Cohen said. “It was definitely a shock. I wasn’t really sure how to react, but I was trying to be as supportive as possible for herself having to go through this and for ourselves thinking, OK, this is really the end of the line.”

Earlier this year, the couple filed a lawsuit against Canadian Fertility Consulting seeking nearly $200,000. The lawsuit alleges the company breached its contract and failed to properly oversee expense reimbursements submitted by the surrogate. The couple is also seeking damages, alleging the experience caused them significant psychological harm.

In its statement of defence, CFC denies breaching its contracts and argues the lawsuit was filed outside the applicable limitation period. The allegations have not been proven in court.

The dispute centres on expense claims the couple says they reimbursed during the pregnancy.

Under Canadian law, surrogates cannot be paid for carrying a child but can be reimbursed for certain pregnancy-related expenses.

Kasparian and Cohen allege that among 575 receipts provided through CFC, some were duplicates, some were unrelated to the pregnancy and others were dated months before the pregnancy began.

“After all these expenses that were just so unnecessary, if the CFC had taken better care of these receipts in the first place, then we wouldn’t be in this position,” Cohen said. “Just so much time and effort. It just makes you feel taken advantage of.”

A lawyer representing CFC declined to comment beyond the company’s court filings.

In an emailed statement, Health Canada said it could not comment on specific cases because of privacy concerns. A spokesperson said complaints are reviewed and prioritized, and that if a contravention of the law is identified, the department has several enforcement options available.

Despite the loss, the couple attempted surrogacy again in 2024 through a different agency and with another surrogate. That pregnancy also ended with a loss.

Now, they say they are coming to terms with the possibility they may never have a child.

“My hope is that if we can’t have this dream, then I really would like surrogacy to be safer and more ethical and transparent for others in Canada and abroad,” Kasparian said.

“If I could help with that, then it would have been worthwhile.”

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

U.S. President Donald Trump says he is pausing for three days the new tariffs that were set to hit Canada just after midnight, after announcing that the two countries have reached a trade deal.

In a Truth Social post Tuesday evening, Trump wrote: “I have paused the 50% Tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three day period, based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL! The great Keystone XL Pipeline, long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden, may be awoken from the grave! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

The announcement comes after Canada and the United States reached a trade agreement, avoiding a fresh round of sweeping 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods that Trump had threatened last month.

In a statement Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada and the United States had made “substantial progress” in trade negotiations, but cautioned that “important work still needs to be done.” He said Washington had agreed to postpone the 50 per cent tariffs until the end of Aug. 21 while talks continue.

Trump pointed to the Keystone XL pipeline in his initial social media post, quickly following with a fictional image of him slamming an illustration of the pipeline into the ground.

Former president Joe Biden signed an executive order to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have transferred oil from Alberta to Nebraska, on his first day in office. Trump returned to office set on changing that decision. Earlier this year, he signed an executive order for permits to revive parts of the Keystone project.

It’s not clear how much of the trade talks between Canadian and American officials focused on the energy project. Carney spoke with Trump by phone Tuesday, hours before the U.S. was set to bring in the tariffs.

Ottawa’s efforts were led by Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and chief negotiator Janice Charette, who were in Washington, D.C. trying to work out a deal with their American counterparts.

By reaching a deal, Canada is set to avoid the 50 per cent tariffs on roughly $28 billion worth of Canadian goods that were scheduled to take effect at midnight. The levies targeted a wide range of products, from hockey sticks and honey to wine and cement.

Canadian officials were also looking to see relief on existing tariffs that target steel, aluminum, lumber and autos.

It remained unclear late Tuesday what had been agreed to under the tentative agreement Trump announced.

-with files from The Canadian Press

 

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