In the 1980s, hardcore punk was among the hardest, heaviest, and most intense genres in this arm of the galaxy. It was very heavy with testosterone. Speaking generally, the music was angry, confrontational, and anti-establishment. Sometimes anti-everything. The bands took no prisoners, and neither did audiences. Gigs could be very intense, places where rage was burned off with slam dancing, mosh pits, circle pits, crowd surfing, and stage diving that looked like an army battalion heading over a cliff at full speed. We had bands like Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Agnostic Front, the Cro-Mags, and Bad Brains. But the scene also had room for Hüsker Dü, a band from Minneapolis that introduced more melody into hardcore. And D.C. gave us Minor Threat, who, while still maintaining that hardcore spirit, lived a drug-free and alcohol-free lifestyle that they called “straight edge.” Sometime in the late ’80s, people plugged into the hardcore punk subculture started talking about a new flavour that grew out of whatever Hüsker Dü and Minor Threat were having. There were groups like Rites of Spring, Embrace, and Fugazi. Their music was still loud, hard, and often very fast, but there was something different about the lyrics… They were personal, honest, and even vulnerable… Things could get screamy, but there was no mistaking the emotion that came through… When Gen X entered their coming-of-age years in the 1990s, this emotional punk found itself rippling through the alternative nation… Its DNA showed up in bands like Nirvana and Weezer, while newer groups such as Sunny Day Real Estate and Jawbreaker stayed closer to the emotional punk playbook while also incorporating some of the sensibilities of ’90s indie rock. A couple of parts of North America really embraced this. The Midwest of the U.S. and the Northeast: New York, New Jersey, and parts of New England. By the end of the decade, emo—we’d already been calling it that for a while—started experiencing wider success. Jimmy Eat World, Alkaline Trio, Dashboard Confessional, Saves the Day. This set the stage for the main event: the emo explosion of the early aughts. And while many of the original bands continue to do their thing, one group in particular is doing better than ever. They took a genre built in tiny clubs and scaled it to stadiums. Yes, I’m talking about My Chemical Romance. But it wasn’t eas. This is a band with a career filled with trauma. Here are ten of them. Songs heard on this show (all by My Chemical Romance)

• • Skylines and Turnstiles

• • Helena

• • I’m Not Okay (I Promise)

• • Famous Last Words

• • Welcome to the Black Parade

• • The Only Hope for Me is You

• • Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)

• • Boy Division

• • Fake Your Death

• • Foundations of Decay

This is Eric Wilhite’s 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 10am and 10pm

• • The Goat Network/Interior BC

• • WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown – Mon-Fri at 9pm

 

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

When System of a Down was working on the Toxicity album, there was a lot of tension within the group, tension that led to actual fistfights. One night in the studio, drummer John Dolmayan punched guitarist Daron Malakian. He responded by slamming Dolmayan with a mic stand. Both of them ended up in the same emergency ward that night, getting stitched up next to each other.

When the album came out in September 2004, the band had a free concert planned for a parking lot in Hollywood. They figured about a thousand people would show up. Instead, the gig attracted 10,000 people. When fire marshals cancelled the gig, there was a riot. The crowd rushed the stage and destroyed about $30,000 worth of gear. Cops had to fire on the crowd with rubber bullets. Six people were arrested.

And while the gig was a disaster, it made System of a Down more famous than ever.

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

Queens of the Stone Age have a pretty distinctive sound. How did Josh Homme’s writing style develop? Polka music.

Josh grew up in Palm Desert, California, a place he said didn’t offer a lot in terms of guitar teachers. The best he could do was a guy named Tom Polonsky whose specialty was polka music. Young Josh learned the guitar through playing those kinds of tunes over the course of two years’ worth of lessons.

Now that you know that, go back and listen to some Queens of the Stone Age Music, especially the song “No One Knows.” If you deconstruct that track down to its very essence, you can hear the distinctive bounce of a polka. This isn’t the only Queens song that feels this way.

Josh says that polka music is so ingrained in him that the polka feel keeps showing up in his songwriting as a default, whether he wants it to or not.

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

NDP Leader David Eby says the B.C. Conservatives are “conducting themselves as if they’ve won” the provincial election by focusing on fundraising instead of taking questions from the media in the last days of the campaign.

Final voting day is on Saturday, but interim Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson did not take questions from reporters on Tuesday and has no media availability scheduled Wednesday.

Instead, he has two fundraising events on his agenda, after five others in the past week, as the Conservatives push for donations to counter what they call NDP attack ads.

Eby says at a campaign stop in the election battleground of Surrey that Doerkson has “gone into hiding.”

The Conservatives say Doerkson will return to public campaigning on Thursday with an announcement and media availability in Metro Vancouver, followed by a rally in Surrey.

Advance voting closes at 8 p.m. Wednesday, and Elections BC says about 711,000 people have voted in the first five days of early polling, down by about 9 per cent compared with the first five days of advance voting in 2024.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

TORONTO – The long wait is finally over: Kawhi Leonard is playing for the Toronto Raptors again.

Leonard is in the starting lineup tonight as Toronto hosts the Chicago Bulls in its home opener.

He was instrumental in the Raptors’ 2019 NBA championship but signed with his hometown Los Angeles Clippers that following off-season.

L.A. traded him back to Toronto this past summer, although the deal was delayed as the NBA investigated Leonard and the Clippers for salary cap circumvention.

Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic says that it’s very exciting to “bring a Hall of Famer back home.”

Rajakovic implied that the oft injured Leonard would be on a minutes restriction against the Bulls.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2026.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

Pope Leo XIV got good news from his doctors: The pontiff will need no further treatment for lung cancer after follow-up tests confirmed the disease was localized, the Vatican said in a statement Wednesday.

Leo, 71, had the lower lobe of his right lung removed last week in the first major health event of his 17-month pontificate. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. Leo was discharged from Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic on Saturday, four days after surgery, and said he would gradually resume his activities.

The pope’s personal physician, Dr. Luigi Carbone, and his surgeon, Dr. Stefano Margaritora, said in a statement that results of the final post-operative tests on tissue removed during the pope’s surgery confirmed the diagnosis and that the cancer had not spread.

“A subsequent oncology assessment confirmed that no further treatment is necessary,” the doctors said.

The pope had the lower section, or lobe, of his right lung removed to try to ensure that all the cancer was removed.

Additional treatment is offered in such cases if follow-up testing finds signs that the cancer has spread, such as through the lymph nodes, or has certain other signs that it might be particularly aggressive. Surgery often can be enough when tumors are caught very early, such as when someone has an X-ray or other scan that shows a spot long before it’s large or causing symptoms.

The pope appears to have had one of those “incidental findings,” a nodule in his lung spotted during another exam.

In an interview with Vatican News on Saturday, Margaritora, the chief thoracic surgeon at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, confirmed that the nodule was found by chance during routine abdominal examinations, and that the pope had not been experiencing any symptoms.

“The statements suggest that this is a stage I lung cancer for which surgery is highly effective and expected to be curative,” said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. He said the lack of further treatment suggests a relatively small cancer, and that it had not spread to lymph nodes.

The pope carried on business while in the hospital, including a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and has appeared strong in two public appearances at the Vatican since his surgery: the traditional Sunday blessing from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square and Wednesday’s longer audience in the square, greeting the faithful from around the world.

“Thank you! Thank you for the support of your prayers,” Leo said during the audience.

His next major engagement is an ambitious Nov. 6-17 trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.

Margaritora told Vatican News that there was “no clinical reason” to prevent the trip, which includes a dozen flights, two helicopter rides and high altitude stops.

The pope had revealed that a nodule would be surgically removed during the traditional Sunday blessing on Oct. 11, in an unusually transparent disclosure broadcast on live television that broke the tradition of secrecy surrounding papal health issues.

—AP medical writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

B.C.’s newest multi-millionaire waited 10 months to claim his prize.

Richard Z, only identified by his last initial by the B.C. Lottery Corporation (BCLC), said he was relaxing in his Quesnel home last December when he saw that someone who purchased a ticket in his hometown had won the Lotto 6/49 Gold Ball Jackpot.

He said that’s when he checked his ticket and learned he had won $46 million.

“The ticket was only visually validated,” Richard told BCLC.

“I checked the BCLC website and had an inkling I may have the winning ticket. When it said it was the Gold Ball, that’s when the overwhelming feelings set in; knowing that out of everyone in Canada, I had the ticket that won $46 million.”

He said he first told his wife and they were emotional and overwhelmed by the win.

Richard did not disclose why he waited so long to claim his prize, but he said he and his wife have plans to travel and “move forward slowly.”

“My wife and I want to do some travelling and I want to see the pyramids! We want to experience and enjoy stress-free trips,” Richard said.

The winning ticket was purchased at Billy Barker Casino in Quesnel.

So far in 2026, B.C. lottery players have redeemed more than $135 million in winnings from Lotto 6/49, according to the BCLC.

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

Canada’s largest federal public service union says 120,000 workers will take part in nationwide strike votes starting next month after contract talks with the federal government broke down.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada says voting will take place from Nov. 16 to Jan. 22.

The union and Treasury Board have been in contract negotiations for a year and a half, and PSAC in May called a government wage offer of less than one per cent per year “insulting.”

PSAC says the government has refused to negotiate on key issues such as wages, job security, remote work and protections against artificial intelligence.

“The government has left us no other choice,” said PSAC national president Sharon DeSousa. “This is a wake-up call for the government to stop playing games and put a fair offer on the table.”

Workers to take part in strike votes include wildland firefighters, passport and benefit officers, fishery officers, federal teachers, librarians and administrative staff.

If the vote passes, the union would be in a legal strike position for 60 days. But DeSousa says a strike is the last resort option.

“Our goal is to get a good collective agreement, and it doesn’t have to lead to a strike, but we will if required to do so,” she said.

In 2023, 155,000 federal public servants spent almost two weeks on picket lines across the country before winning wage increases amounting to 12.6 per cent over the agreement’s term, which ran from 2021 to 2024.

Since then, federal public servants have faced both job cuts and an increase in their required office presence.

The Liberals’ 2025 budget outlined a plan to slash the public service by 10 per cent by the end of the 2028-29 fiscal year as part of an effort to reduce spending.

The federal public service has shed more than 23,000 staffers over the last two years, says Canada’s parliamentary spending watchdog.

An online tool released by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer last month estimates there were 344,970 federal employees in the second quarter of this year, down 6.5 per cent from two years ago.

At the same time, federal government departments and agencies are set to spend more than $18 million to get their employees to work in the office more often.

Thousands of federal public servants started a new work schedule in July requiring them to be on-site in the office four days a week. Executive public servants returned to the office full-time in May.

In response to an order paper question from NDP MP Heather McPherson, 13 federal organizations said they plan to spend a combined $18,720,150 to reconfigure or acquire office space to accommodate the increased frequency of in-person work.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

The regimental colours of a Saskatchewan-based military detachment that fought in both world wars returned to the province’s Legislative Building Wednesday after almost 50 years.

Colours are a British military tradition that Canada kept after Confederation. Historically, the ceremonial flags were used to mark the rallying point for troops while they battled. Many of the Royal Regina Rifles regimental colours, that are now hanging in Saskatchewan’s legislature, were used during First and Second World Wars.

The Rifles have been Regina’s regiment since 1905. In that time, several battalions have operated as Rifles sub-units — including the 28th Northwest Battalion, the 68th Battalion, the 195th Battalion and the 249th Battalion.

“Seeing these colours back in the Legislative Assembly, it just feels so appropriate,” Premier Scott Moe said, speaking to reporters and an audience that included politicians, and active and former members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

“They are an important reminder for each of us that Saskatchewan people have always shown their support and respect for those who serve our country and stand up for our values and principles.”

Formerly, the colours were housed in the provincial assembly in 1919 and remained there until 1977 when they were moved to St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Regina. They remained at the cathedral until 2024, when they were removed for renovations.

As of Wednesday, the province said the consecrated flags returned to being publicly viewable at the Legislative Building.

“I think it is very appropriate that they are returned to this house of democracy,” Moe said.

“We have a democracy in Saskatchewan and in Canada. And the only reason we have that is because of the brave service of our men and women in our Canadian military. That is why we have a democracy in this nation.”

John Watson is the last surviving member of the Royal Regina Rifles who served in the Second World War.

“To see the colours back where they were, it’s a great thing,” the veteran told reporters, adding that he was “very happy” to be at the Legislature.

Kevin Barry, commanding officer of the Royal Regina Rifles, said the colours are a reminder of the humanity of members of Canadian troops. Barry said bringing the historical items back to the Legislature was “truly a humbling thing to finally get to do.”

“These colours were placed here over 110 years ago, and they are now back in the place where they were first placed,” Barry said.

“Those fighting men, who fought for our freedom, these are most treasured possessions.”

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

Big changes are coming to the Port of Saint John.

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt and federal Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon were in the city Wednesday to announce a $463 million project to strengthen rail, road and marine infrastructure connecting the port to national and international markets.

“Making an investment here in Saint John is an investment that pays off for not just Saint John and New Brunswick, but for the rest of Canada,” said MacKinnon.

The Saint John Trade Corridor is the first project to receive funding through the federal Trade Diversification Corridors Fund.

The federal government is providing $254 million and the province is investing $116.5 million. The remaining $92.5 million will come from partners delivering components of the project.

Those components include dredging the port’s main channel, a new 2,787-square-metre Canada Border Services Agency container examination facility and shoreline stabilization to protect rail capacity at NBSR Bayshore Rail Terminal.

More than 100 km of existing rail will also be replaced and the Simms Corner intersection will be reconstructed to improve safety and address congestion.

“Dredging is the biggest piece of the project here for us — the widening and deepening of the channel that is going to allow for two-way traffic at high tide and it’s going to increase the tidal window for all users of the port,” said Port of Saint John CEO Craig Bell Estabrooks.

Bell Estabrooks said excitement about the project is being shared by colleagues at other ports in Canada.

“We all need to be razor sharp, building bigger, and focused on infrastructure and I know they have applications that are going to get funded as well, and it’s very exciting for all of us,” he said.

For Premier Susan Holt, the funding and improvements represent a major step toward getting more New Brunswick goods to new markets.

“We have what the world wants and we are going to deliver it to them based on these investments in the port,” she said.

She referenced recent political tensions, tariffs and trade disputes with the United States — saying this was when “things got really serious.”

“Canada has long benefited from our relationship with the U.S. but it was very clear that we needed to look elsewhere for growth for New Brunswick and for our country,” she said.

She added that the announcement will help her government bring more to the table when negotiating with future trade partners, adding she’s already participated in trade missions to Belgium, France, and India.

“They’re wondering how long it takes, what’s the cost of shipment, how many hours they’re spending at sea,” she said.

“And so the fact that we can bring in products that New Brunswickers can add value to, turn them around and get them back out to customers more rapidly reduces the cost and makes us more competitive.”

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