At the corner of Dundas and Sherbourne streets, one Toronto man is making weekly visits to the area.

Rolling a wagon filled with grilled cheese-making ingredients and a travel stove top, Sean Espinoza has made it his mission to feed those in need.

“I’ll go to different parts of the city and I’ll always just find a bunch of people that are hungry,” said the creator of Picnic in the Six.

He started the initiative nearly a year ago, heading onto the streets of Toronto offering hot meals and supplies — all paid out of pocket and through GoFundMe donations.

“I had experienced homelessness myself for about six or seven years back when I was probably around 15,” he said. “I kind of know what it’s like to go hungry, to go without even having someone to talk to, you know? So, a lot of times when I’m out I’m not just cooking, I’m making friends. It’s nice.”

Going through six loaves of bread in an hour, the need is clear.

One grilled cheese recipient, Michelle Ball, was excitedly waiting for her sandwich.

“I’m smelling this grilled cheese and it’s making me really hungry,” she said.

Ball has experienced homelessness and finds that outreach like the Picnic in the Six initiative makes an impact.

“A lot of people are homeless and they don’t have food in their belly and it’s nice to know that people care,” Ball said.

“Because addicts have problems with addictions, they shouldn’t just be shunned and put to the side and just ignored,” she continued. “Everybody needs help.”

Documenting the Picnic in the Six interactions on social media, the hope is to spread awareness about what the city’s most vulnerable are facing.

“People sometimes just are so busy with their life that they’ll just walk by and not pay any attention to a lot of people,” Espinoza said. “I’m hoping that it can spark something in everybody.”

His work has already inspired others.

“It is inspiring to see someone who was at rock bottom now give back to people that may be at rock bottom, that may be experiencing the real harsh realities in the world,” said University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) student Monty Galvan.

Part of UTM’s Women and Gender Equity Centre (WGEC), her team plans to join Picnic in the Six for a fundraiser while handing out food and supplies on Sept. 7.

“Community coming together and supporting each other, especially in these hard times when not a lot of people have a lot to give but they have time and energy to give, is so important to show humanity is still alive,” Galvan said.

All in an effort to show up for one another, Espinoza questioned: If he can do it, why can’t others?

“Why wouldn’t the government be able to do something like this?” he said.

“This is just another regular person that’s been out here, that’s experienced homelessness, addiction. So, I mean, I kind of want to ruffle the feathers a little bit. Why is it on us?”

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

As rescue efforts in communities buried by catastrophic flash floods along the Nepal – China border entered their fourth day Saturday, authorities were still finding survivors and transporting them to safety. At relief centers, while some arrived, families of others waited anxiously for news of their loved ones as the death toll and the number of people unaccounted for continued to rise.

After Nepali authorities updated their figures Saturday, the combined toll in Nepal and Tibet rose to 676 dead and nearly 3,000 people missing. Chinese authorities have reported seven deaths and more than 550 missing, while Nepal’s disaster agency said the death toll had climbed to 669 with 2,426 people missing.

More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far.

In Nuwakot, one of the Nepali districts devastated by the floods, helicopters arrived loaded with boxes and bags of aid, including clothes, instant noodles, crackers and rice. Others returned from the flood-hit areas carrying survivors.

An older man was carefully helped off one helicopter, while a soldier carried an older woman on his back to a medical tent. Most arrived with nothing except the clothes they were wearing.

About a dozen people emerged from another helicopter. Soldiers carried several babies who had been evacuated.

The evacuees had been brought from the nearby community of Trishuli.

Villagers return to devastated homes

As people were still leaving Trishuli, some village residents were returning to see what could be salvaged from their decimated homes.

One boy walked out of the village carrying muddy sandals from his house. Another woman, Shoba Shretha, returned to find Sweetie, the dog she was forced to leave behind when the floods came. Shretha sat on the ground petting her and feeding her water from a bottle.

At some point, relief coordinators cleared villagers, reporters and volunteers from the entrance to Trishuli, as excavation equipment drove into the flooded village to dig.

Families begin to lose hope

In Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, relatives and friends gathered outside the main government hospital from early morning, desperately searching for news of missing loved ones.

Many shuffled between the help desk and the hospital notice board, clutching photographs and scanning injured patients’ lists in the hope of finding them.

Dil Maya Lama stood weeping outside the help desk at the hospital, searching for information about her missing 26-year-old brother, a driver for a hydropower company in Rasuwa. She had traveled from Ramechhap, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) away.

“I came here with the hope that I might find him,” she said. “There is no information about him.”

Nelza Moktan anxiously sought information about her missing cousin, who also worked as a driver in Rasuwa.

“I feel hopeless. It has already been four days,” she said.

Families covered hospital walls with posters showing missing relatives, photographs and contact numbers in a desperate appeal for any clue that could bring them home.

Families search paper lists for any clue

Back in Nuwakot, military personnel taped sheets of paper listing dozens of missing people to a wall at a relief center, prompting families to crowd around them.

Some scanned lists of the missing and dead, took photos and wiped away tears as they looked through the names.

Rajesh Kumar Ram desperately searched through a list for his son’s name.

“I’m hopeful, by chance, that my son is somewhere,” he said, crying as he spoke. “Maybe they find him stuck somewhere. I’m waiting for that moment only.”

Outside, people walked along mud-covered streets past signs of the disaster. On one street, a truck was stuck in the mud with its bed raised in the air.

Priti Kharel stood outside the entrance to the army barracks, holding a poster with a picture of her brother, Milan Kharel, who works as an engineering geologist at Doosan Enerbility. His family hasn’t heard from him since the floods.

“It’s already four days,” said Kharel, who believes his brother could be one of the people trapped inside the tunnel of a hydropower construction site, where authorities have rescued some people.

“We want the government to rescue him as soon as possible,” she added.

Rescuers battle to find survivors in disaster-hit areas

Search and rescue efforts continued at several locations in Nepal and China’s Tibet, including the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Nepal’s Rasuwa district and the severely damaged Gyirong border crossing on the Chinese side.

Nepali Army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet said rescue efforts would continue at the hydropower construction site, where authorities believe more than 100 people are trapped in a tunnel filled with thick mud.

Rescuers had been on high alert for more flooding from a new lake that formed high up in the Himalayan mountains after the initial floods Wednesday.

Monitoring data from the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources showed late Friday that the lake had dwindled in size. The water level dropped by 10 meters (32 feet) from the high point on Thursday morning, Chinese broadcaster CCTV said.

The Chinese broadcaster showed images Saturday of rescuers arriving at Gyirong Port, the hard-hit border crossing with Nepal. “Anyone, anyone?” rescuers yelled.

It was not immediately known how many people were at the border checkpoint building when the floods hit.

Hundreds of the missing are foreigners who were in the area to work, trek or make a pilgrimage to a sacred peak.

Steep mountains and narrow gorges hamper rescue operations

In a news briefing Saturday, Nepalese Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said authorities have mobilized all available resources with support from international assistance for search, rescue, relief and recovery operations, with a particular focus on locating those still missing.

“This is currently our national priority,” he told reporters Saturday.

He said rescue operations are challenging because of steep, tall mountains and narrow gorges in the disaster-hit region.

Khanal said the government has sought specialized support from Nepal’s neighbors in tunnel rescue, survivor-detection technology, rapid forensic and DNA analysis, as well as morgue refrigerators.

An 11-member tunnel rescue reconnaissance team from India has been deployed while a similar rescue team from China is expected shortly, he added.

The minister said Nepal has received over 57 metric tons of relief supplies from India, with additional aid arriving from China, Japan, Australia and other countries. He added that further support will be sought as need assessments continue.

–Kafle reported from Kathmandu, Nepal. Associated Press journalists Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Sibi Arasu in Bengaluru, India; Upendra Mansingh in Nuwakot district, Nepal; Aijaz Hussain in New Delhi, India; and Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

A massive increase in immigration cases in the last six years has created unmanageable workloads at the Federal Court, says Chief Justice Alan Diner.

The Federal Court has jurisdiction over a number of immigration matters, such as visa applications, refugee claims, admissibility cases and removals.

Diner, who was sworn in as the top judge for the Federal Court on July 6, said when he joined the court in 2014, it typically saw between 5,000 and 6,000 immigration cases a year.

In 2021, immigration filings quickly began to climb, with 9,700 cases brought before the court that year. Now Diner said the Federal Court is on track to see upwards of 33,000 immigration filings this year alone.

“The judges have the pedal to the metal and are trying to do their utmost,” Diner said.

“They’re working around the clock, working weekends, working vacations, court staff, the same thing, available evenings, available weekends to try and deal with this volume.”

The rapid increase in immigration-related cases coincides with an increase in the number of permanent and temporary immigrants, in addition to asylum seekers, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 14,000 immigration cases were filed between Jan. 1 and June 30, with 28,000 pending. Almost 1,000 cases have been granted hearings for a judicial review.

“It would be a lie for me to say this is without challenges. Judges are being pressured, court staff are being pressured, and I’m very proud of the way they’re handling this unprecedented increase, but we’re doing what we can,” Diner said.

The passage of Canada’s border security bill, C-12, in March is also creating additional pressures on Federal Court resources.

That bill says the Immigration and Refugee Board will only hear cases from people who make a refugee claim within their first year in Canada. The law is retroactive to arrivals in Canada after June 24, 2020 and applies to all claims made on or after June 3, 2025.

If someone makes a refugee claim more than a year after the first time they arrived in Canada, they are only eligible for a pre-removal risk assessment. The only avenue to appeal a negative assessment is through the Federal Court.

Diner said since C-12 became law the Federal Court has received more than 2,000 applications challenging the constitutionality of the law.

These challenges are going through case management, where judges will make a ruling on the core constitutional question based on a smaller number of cases.

Diner said the Federal Court is also seeing a “huge increase” in requests for a stay of deportation since C-12 was passed. He said the court usually saw 300 to 400 applications a year, but is now looking at more than 1,100 cases.

There are 44 Federal Court judges, including Diner. He said they have seen a roughly 600 per cent increase in the number of immigration cases since 2020 with no change in the number of judges.

He said the Federal Court needs more judges to keep up with the workload and the government has been made aware of the request.

“So, difficult for the same number of judges to do six times the amount of work,” Diner said.

“But obviously it’s incumbent on us to improve to the extent that we can, and be innovative and modernize and use technology to try and somehow stem this flow.”

A spokesperson for Justice Minister Sean Fraser said he is “mindful” of the significant caseload increase facing the Federal Court, and is committed to supporting fair, timely access to justice.

The spokesperson said both the department and minister assess requests for additional resources, and “evidence of growing caseloads and backlogs are important factors in those assessments.”

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner said the increased caseload isn’t surprising, given the increase in immigration over the last decade that includes the period when Fraser was minister.

She said the government was also warned about “instant challenges” to C-12 when it was being studied at committee.

“I think that the government needs to take a bit of a pause and look at why there is such a volume of caseload and then try to address some of the determinants of those causes,” Rempel Garner said.

“Their poor management of the file, putting it mildly over the last decade, has had an impact on the court system. Of course it has.”

The Federal Court registry issued a notice last month noting document processing times have increased due to a “significant surge” in filings. The notice says the goal is to process documents within 48 hours, but delays could be up to eight weeks — especially for immigration-related matters.

Diner said the court is doing what it can to increase efficiency. He said this is one of his main priorities as chief justice.

This includes expanding on digitization work that really started to advance during the COVID-19 pandemic and looking at automation and artificial intelligence tools that could assist in managing high caseloads.

The use of AI in the court could one day go beyond just administration.

“That’s obviously something we’re going to have to consider. Not to make decisions, but to see where we can assist in the process, given this unprecedented surge,” Diner said. “We do know that AI is increasingly being used and obviously we also have to consider if the judiciary can use AI to help cope with this unprecedented volume.”

Immigration related filings made up about 86 per cent of the matters brought to the Federal Court in the first six months on the year, and are consistently the majority of files brought to the court in a given year.

While the court continues to manage the major increase in immigration cases, Diner said the demand is increasing in other areas of their jurisdiction, including national security matters, class actions and judicial reviews.

“Working weekends, working holidays, working through your vacations is not really an acceptable answer to how we’re going to have long term well-being,” he said.

“When you’re under the kinds of pressure that I’ve talked about, you can imagine that people end up feeling sensitive, burned out, and so forth … The judges are always going to work hard, the employees are always going to work hard. But we have to ensure the well-being of our complement.”

© 2026 The Canadian Press

From her home in northeast Calgary, Saima Jamal scrolls through nearly a dozen hateful comments posted online ahead of a Muslim event in the city.

“One person said, ‘Hey, someone should plow into them.’ Another person is saying, ‘Please check their ID, arrest, deport,'” she said.

Jamal, the co-founder of the Calgary Immigrant Support Society — a group first created more than a decade ago to help Syrian refugees settle into life in Calgary — has lived in Alberta for almost 30 years.

“Right now racism and hate is on steroids and I’ve never seen this level of hatred toward immigrant communities,” Jamal said. “Muslim communities, Indians, anyone that is wearing a turban.”

The online comments, ranging from threatening to unkind, appeared on a recent post promoting the city’s Muslim Heritage Day festival. Calgary police said there was no credible threat to public safety but assigned uniformed officers to attend the event. It was held a day after two men were stabbed at a Sikh temple in Edmonton. Edmonton police are still trying to determine whether that attack was a hate crime.

Sikh community leaders believe anti-Sikh hate within the province is on the rise.

“We’ve seen this in online forums,” said Harman Kandola, Alberta regional president for the World Sikh Organization of Canada. “When you see that hate leave social media and come into the real world where actual injuries have happened, it is extremely, extremely shocking.”

Edmonton police say there have been 139 hate incidents and 43 hate crimes to date in 2026. Calgary police say of 272 suspected hate crimes or incidents reports this year, 44 were deemed to be hate-motivated after investigation, with newcomers or immigrants targeted most often.

Following the Sikh temple attack, Edmonton police Chief Warren Driechel expressed concern about heightened tensions.

“We can’t politicize this incident (but) as the chief of the Edmonton Police Service, I see the heightened geopolitical tensions and increasing polarization around the world showing up locally,” he said Aug. 21.

University of Alberta political science professor Jared Wesley says the referendum debate in Alberta is contributing to the climate.

“I have concerns about where this is, not where it’s headed,” he said. “I mean, it is entirely predictable when you table a series of referendum questions about the future treatment of immigrants in Alberta society that the conversation would not be simply limited to economic questions.”

On Oct. 19, Albertans will vote on 10 referendum questions put forward by the Alberta government, five of them dealing with immigration policy.

One question asks: “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?”

Another asks: “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?”

Albertans will also vote on whether they want a future referendum asking if the province should remain in Canada or begin the legal process to hold a binding referendum on separation.

“In a very real way,” Wesley said, “the big referendum question, the one around whether Alberta should remain in Canada, isn’t just one about whether we want to start our own country but what kind of country would we want to start and for a lot of folks, not everyone, but for a lot of folks in the separatist movement they have a very different view of what Alberta should be.”

Based on two years of researching the movement by attending rallies and town halls and conducting surveys and focus groups, Wesley believes an independent Alberta is seen by many within the movement as predominantly white and Christian.

“Whether that’s on purpose or whether that is subconsciously being projected, those are the types of messages that you see when you’re in separatist chat rooms or in different corners of social media or even at rallies,” said Wesley.

“Alberta Prosperity Project events often start with a Christian prayer and chief organizer Mitch Sylvestre often refers to the fact that it’s nice to be in a room full of white folks that are not ashamed of being white,” Wesley said.

Wesley said it’s also not unusual to hear white replacement theory discussed at these town halls, a conspiracy theory that involves bringing non-white people into communities through immigration and ‘open borders.’

Global News contacted Sylvestre, the leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, for comment about Wesley’s research but he did not provide a response.

A spokesperson for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith rejected any claim that the fall’s referendum questions could be linked to an increase in anti-immigrant sentiment or hate.

“Any accusation that the referendum questions on sustainable immigration constitute racism is false and inflammatory,” said Sam Blackett, Alberta government director of media relations and press secretary to the premier.

“These questions simply address the current unsustainable immigration levels in Canada that are putting real pressure on critical public services.

“These questions also reflect the feedback we heard from Albertans during the Alberta Next town halls.”

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

Strong majorities of Canadians support the federal government walking away from U.S. trade talks and hitting back with retaliatory tariffs, a new poll suggests, which is translating to persistent support for Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberals.

However, the Ipsos polling conducted exclusively for Global News and released Saturday also shows that support varies by age, with fewer Generation Z and Millennial adults backing the Liberals and their approach to the growing U.S. trade war.

“These people are living in what we like to call ‘the endurance economy’: they’re just getting by from day to day, and they’re enduring economic life right now,” said Darrell Bricker, chairman of Ipsos Canada.

“I think one of the takeaways here is that while Canadians are generally supportive of the idea of pushing back hard on the United States … if any of those things could bring a personal risk, if you’re somebody who’s living in that endurance economy, you’re less likely to support it.”

The poll found 63 per cent of Canadians surveyed feel Canada was right to stand firm in the trade negotiations, “even if it meant higher costs and job losses,” while just 18 per cent said Canada should have made additional sacrifices to get a deal.

An even larger majority, 73 per cent, said they back Ottawa’s “dollar for dollar” counter-tariffs on $28 billion worth of U.S. goods, matching the up to 50 per cent tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump last week after trade talks collapsed.

But those numbers fall to 48 per cent of Gen Z adults and 57 per cent of Millennials who support Canada standing firm, and 59 per cent of Millennials who were happy to see Canada’s retaliatory tariffs. By comparison, about 80 per cent of elderly boomers supported both of those positions.

Bricker said the disparity points to economic realities for those different age groups.

“The people who were the ‘elbows up’ crowd in the last election campaign, who voted for the Liberals and continue to vote for the Liberals, they’re older, they’re more economically established, they tend to have higher degrees of education, they tend be more affluent,” Bricker said.

“So as a result of that, there’s less risk for them. So they can be all ‘elbows up,’ but it doesn’t cost them as much as it’s going to cost the other people they’re asking to have their elbows up.”

The age gap also extends to who Canadians said they would vote for if an election were to be held tomorrow.

While the Liberals maintain a healthy lead of 44 per cent support overall among those surveyed, compared to 33 per cent for the Conservatives, 40 per cent of Millennials chose the Conservatives over the Liberals, who see just 30 per cent support in that age group.

The Liberals’ support is down by just one point since April, while the Conservatives saw no change. The NDP at 10 per cent and the Bloc Quebecois at eight per cent nationally are each up one point since April.

“I have not in my consciousness recalled as tumultuous a week, or couple of weeks, or couple of months, in Canadian politics since probably 1995, when we went through the sovereignty referendum,” Bricker said.

“You would expect that you would see a lot of change in terms of political support, and we’re seeing virtually none (since the federal election). … I would say a lot of what’s going on right now is basically baked in, in terms of how it relates to federal politics.

Bricker added Canadians are likely not anticipating another election anytime soon, meaning they’re not thinking hard about their vote intentions right now.

Asked if they felt Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his party would have done a better job handling the trade issues with the U.S. than Carney, 37 per cent overall said yes, with 67 per cent of Conservative voters agreeing.

A sizeable 62 per cent of respondents said they would like to see Parliament recalled before it’s due to reconvene in late September in order to debate and vote on Canada’s response to the U.S., which Bricker said could pose a vulnerability to an otherwise politically strong Carney.

“Canadians know their institutions actually matter to them,” he said. “Not recalling Parliament and not having a conversation through our political institutions is something that does represent a little bit of a vulnerability … (but) I would say, at this stage of the day, a mere crack.”

The poll also found strong support for a slew of other retaliatory measures that Canada could take against U.S. trade actions, from imposing tariffs on critical minerals and energy (both 73 per cent) to limiting those exports south of the border (71 per cent for critical minerals and 69 per cent for crude oil, natural gas and electricity).

Two-thirds said they would like to see an “aggressive” tax on U.S. tech giants operating in Canada, while 64 per cent were supportive of logistically slowing down U.S. imports by tightening border inspections on incoming goods.

The least popular option presented — letting the Canadian dollar weaken naturally to make Canadian exports more globally competitive — saw 45 per cent support.

On “Buy American,” 80 per cent said they supported government purchasing and infrastructure projected prioritizing Canadian materials and contracts, with 60 per cent saying they will make an effort to prioritize Canadian products, services and companies themselves.

Between two-thirds and 80 per cent of respondents were supportive of other possible government support measures in the trade war, such as helping businesses expand to markets outside the U.S., providing job training and retraining programs for affected workers, and offering loans, emergency aid, extended Employment Insurance, or financial incentives to businesses.

Sixty-seven per cent of Canadians said they would like to see a major COVID-era subsidy program put in place to support Canadian workers affected by tariffs by both countries in the trade war, up eight points since last July.

And while 52 per cent overall said they are personally willing to undergo some “significant” economic pain to help Canada weather the storm, that number once again was lower among Generation Z (41 per cent) and higher among boomers (67 per cent).

“I thought the numbers would be stronger,” Bricker said.

“As you start going down the list and people start considering things that might be a little bit more onerous, or things that they’re really not that certain what it means, you start to see things get a little bit more wobbly. On the side of support right now, but definitely not as baked in and strong.”

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between August 26 and 27, 2026, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,001 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed online. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian population according to census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18+ been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

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

WINNIPEG – Brady Oliveira doesn’t lack confidence, but even the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ star running back needed a moment to let the feeling sink in.

After all, few would have predicted the Bombers, with losses in three of their last four games, could defeat a Montreal Alouettes club at the top of the CFL standings and riding a seven-game win streak.

Winnipeg, backed by a total team effort, stunned the Alouettes 44-28 in front of a sold-out crowd at Princess Auto Stadium Friday night.

“We needed that one, man,” Oliveira said. “We’ve had some really tight games, games that haven’t gone our way. That’s going to be every team, but I just feel like we’ve been on the short end of it a little bit this year.”

With five losses through 10 games, including four at home, many were doubting the Bombers as legitimate Grey Cup contenders. Oliveira said a victory over the league’s hottest team should help build momentum for their upcoming back-to-back games with the rival Saskatchewan Roughriders.

“I would say it was our most complete game of the year,” Oliveira added. “We learned from the mistakes last week and throughout this entire season. Just proud of the guys.”

With the victory, the Bombers improved to 6-5. The win also keeps Winnipeg in a hotly contested West Division playoff race, now in third place ahead of the B.C. Lions (5-5) and just behind the second-place Saskatchewan Roughriders (6-4).

The Alouettes dropped to 9-2 but still have a healthy lead atop the East, four games up on the second-place Toronto Argonauts (5-5).

“We don’t call games losses; it’s a learning opportunity for us,” Alouettes head coach Jason Maas said. “It will be a hard ride home, we’ll all take it to heart.”

Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros made his third consecutive start since returning from a neck injury, finishing 26-for-32 passing for 324 yards and two touchdowns.

The Bombers recorded 447 net yards of offence, with Ontaria Wilson adding two receiving touchdowns to go with a pair of rushing majors from Bryce Perkins and one from Oliveira. Sergio Castillo rounded out the scoring with three field goals, hitting from 51, 43 and 20 yards.

Wilson led all receivers with 114 yards on nine receptions. Oliveira rushed 13 times for 84 yards.

Montreal quarterback Davis Alexander threw for 257 yards on 20-for-31 passing, along with three touchdowns to Tyler Snead and one to Tyson Philpot. It was Alexander’s first regular-season start against Winnipeg and just the second loss of his career (21-2).

Alexander, who briefly left the game with a lower-body injury, was not made available for interviews after the game.

“You respect every team and Winnipeg is a known team, especially the last few years,” Snead said. “You know what you’re going to get from them — they’re going to play fast, they’re going to play physical, and they’re going to be disciplined. They did all three of those things tonight.”

Montreal’s offence totalled a season-low 284 net yards and lost the turnover battle 3-1. Running back Travis Theis, who was averaging more than 100 rushing yards in the last six games and had a touchdown in seven of his last eight, was kept out of the end zone and limited to 31 yards on eight carries.

Like seasoned boxers, the two sides went punch for punch, with five touchdowns — totalling 35 points — in the first 20 minutes. The Bombers finished with five touchdowns, the Alouettes four.

“There are always things to correct, but we should enjoy this one tonight,” Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said. “I do think we’ve got to keep going. You’ve got to have more. The other thing is if you’ve been listening, I’ve been saying that we’re close. We’re getting closer and closer and it’s down to the more finite details. And I think that tonight, the guys were pretty damn good.”

The Bombers held a slim 24-21 lead at halftime, but started to pull away as the second half wore on.

Winnipeg’s special teams forced a critical turnover to open the second half, blocking a punt deep in Montreal’s end. The next play, Perkins punched in his second TD to put the Bombers up 31-21.

“Huge,” Collaros said of the punt block. “Our special teams has been great all season long. Any time you can have a momentum swing like that, is massive.”

Another fumble recovery by Winnipeg set up a Castillo 43-yard field goal that put the Bombers up 34-21 through three quarters. He added a 20-yarder early in the fourth to increase the lead to 16 points.

Wilson’s second touchdown made it 44-21, with Snead adding his third score with just more than two minutes remaining.

UP NEXT

Alouettes: Host the B.C. Lions on Friday, Sept. 4.

Blue Bombers: Visit the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Sunday, Sept. 6.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 28, 2026.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

There was one offence that was dominant on Friday night in Winnipeg, and it wasn’t the league’s top-ranked unit from Montreal.

Instead, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers offence had its best game of the season, leading the Blue and Gold to a 44-28 win in front of a sold-out crowd at Princess Auto Stadium.

Coming into Friday, the Bombers averaged 345 yards per game, the third-lowest total in the league while the Alouettes 454.3 yards per game was the highest in the CFL.

But it was the Winnipeg offence looking unstoppable, picking up 450 yards, while the Winnipeg defence held the Alouettes to 284 yards, despite a four-touchdown performance from Alouettes QB Davis Alexander.

“We played some good football for an extended period of time,” said Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. “I do think we got to keep going. It’s no good to have one. You gotta have more but they’ll certainly enjoy this one tonight.

“If you’ve been listening, I’ve been saying we’re close. We’re getting closer and getting closer and it’s down to the more finite details, you know. And I think that tonight the guys were pretty damn good.”

Bombers QB Zach Collaros turned back the clock after what’s been an up-and-down season for him, throwing for 324 yards and two touchdowns with receiver Ontaria Wilson catching both of those and recording 114 yards in helping end the Alouettes seven-game win streak.

“I thought we did a good job running the football, throwing the football,” said Collaros. “The receivers did a great job blocking on the edge. Montreal does a good job. They try to make you dunk it down, check it down.

“We did that pretty well tonight and I thought the receivers, credit to them for blocking on the edge cause they were giving us looks for it and obviously I think Tim (White) had quite a few yards on them but Tommy (Nield), and Nic (Demski), and Pokey (Wilson) out there blocking for those things to make those plays good.”

The Bombers only had to punt the ball twice the entire game. Oliveira also had another effective night, rushing for 106 yards on 16 carries.

It was just the second time this season the Alouettes were held to under 30 points, and it was a statement win for the Bombers after losing three of their last four.

“This is exactly what I envisioned from the off-season when we made all the signings,” said running back Brady Oliveira. “I felt like this is what we’ve always been capable of and unfortunately we just haven’t shown enough of it this season, but we showed it tonight and this is something we can build off of.”

The win moves the Bombers to 6-5 and into a tie with the Saskatchewan Roughriders for second place in the CFL’s West Division, while the Alouettes dropped to 9-2.

The teams went blow-for-blow in the first half with only three combined punts and more than 400 yards of offence combined.

Both teams picked up touchdowns in the first quarter, a one-yard sneak for Bombers QB Bryce Perkins on the game’s first possession, and a 13-yard touchdown catch from the CFL’s leading receiver Tyson Philpot.

The teams then doubled their touchdown totals in the second quarter with Oliveira and Wilson finding the endzone for Winnipeg and Tyler Snead catching two majors for the Als.

A Sergio Castillo 51-yard field goal was the only non-touchdown scoring play, and the Bombers led by three at the half, but it could have been more had Bombers receiver Tommy Nield not fumbled at the one-yard line in the last minute of the half.

The Bombers special teams came up clutch early in the third quarter as Tanner Cadwallader blocked a punt and it was recovered at the Montreal one-yard line. Perkins would punch in his second touchdown of the game a few plays later to put the Bombers up by 10.

Two Castillo field-goals gave the Bombers a 16-point lead for the second straight week, but unlike last week’s loss in Edmonton, Winnipeg wouldn’t relinquish it this time as Wilson added his second touchdown grab in the fourth quarter.

Snead would add this third receiving touchdown of the game in garbage time to make the final score a little more respectable.

Willie Jefferson became just the third player in CFL history to record 100 career pass knockdowns.

Bombers defensive back Deatrick Nichols missed the game with an ankle injury after being a game-time decision.

The Bombers next game goes in Regina next Sunday where they’ll take on the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Labour Day Classic.

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

A Brampton man found guilty of discharging a firearm while subject to three separate weapons prohibition orders in a deadly Moss Park shooting has been sentenced to 10 years, nine months in prison.

On May 22, Nathan Bell was acquitted of first-degree murder following a six-week jury trial.

The jury also found him not guilty of two counts of attempted murder and not guilty of a third count of attempted murder, but guilty of the lesser offence of discharging a firearm with intent to wound.

Bell subsequently pleaded guilty to three counts of violating weapons prohibition orders at his sentencing hearing.

In the early morning hours of Sept. 16, 2023, Bell, accompanied by his friend Richard Baker, travelled by Uber from Brampton to the area of Sherbourne and Dundas streets in Toronto. Once there, they were joined by Baker’s brother.

The three men then moved toward a bus stop where a group of people were gathered following a social event in a nearby park. Their socializing continued until 2:45 a.m., when gun violence erupted.

At trial, Bell testified that he was there to inquire whether anyone in the group of strangers at the bus stop could sell him marijuana. No one present testified to hearing Bell make such an inquiry.

“Exactly what preceded the violent altercation, and precipitated it, is not clear, but evidence suggests that there was an antagonistic verbal exchange,” Justice Philip Campbell wrote in his judgment, “about property or robbery or both.”

During the exchange, a man named Omer Gedo stood up and walked with a side-to-side “waddling gait” toward the three new arrivals. “There is evidence that he had an elongated object in his hand, and he would later be discovered to have a hatchet or small axe in the front pocket of the hoodie he was wearing,” Campbell wrote.

Baker and Gedo drew close to each other at a fence on the east side of the sidewalk. Moments later, gunfire erupted, sending people who had been gathered around the bus stop scattering. Video surveillance shown at trial captured the shooting over about 34 seconds.

Four people were shot, including Gedo, who was shot five times, two bystanders and a man named Kyle Provo, who was fatally wounded. Provo, 33, was shot once in the back of the head as he ran southward.

Bell, Baker and Baker’s brother fled.

Bell and Baker were arrested a week after the shooting. Each man was charged with first-degree murder in Provo’s death and three counts of attempted murder in the shootings of Gedo and the two other men.

Bell testified that he perceived Gedo as a serious threat to Baker when he witnessed a physical struggle between the two men and heard gunshots, which he believed had come from Gedo. Bell said he fired in self-defence.

Campbell called the shooting “a bloodbath” amid the “gunfire and the bedlam,” saying that, without direct insight into the jury’s reasoning, it was likely the jury rejected Bell’s claim of self-defence. The judge said it was more likely jurors concluded Bell shot Gedo with intent to wound him and doubted he formed the subjective intent to kill.

In handing down the sentence, Campbell noted that gun violence must be deterred, particularly in a case involving Bell, whose criminal history includes firearms and other weapons offences, robberies and assaults.

In 2017, Bell received a penitentiary sentence of 35 months, after receiving 31 months of credit for pretrial custody, for manslaughter. Campbell noted that at the time of the shooting, Bell had a criminal record that included 43 offences dating back to 2005.

“This late-night public shooting, in a crowded setting, by a man who carries an illegal firearm as a matter of routine, in defiance of the law and court orders, requires a stern sentence, at the upper bound of the appropriate range,” Campbell said.

After enhanced credit for time spent in pretrial custody, Bell has roughly six years and five months left to serve. He was also given a lifetime weapons prohibition order.

In his allocution, Campbell noted that Bell expressed remorse for the harm caused to the four victims of the bus stop shooting.

“Most pointedly, Mr. Bell said he knew he would ‘have to let the guns go’ and vowed that there would be ‘no more guns for me.’ It definitely is not worth it,” Campbell said.

Campbell told court that Bell, now 40, has a mother and sister who love him, extended family, a winning personality and an agile intelligence.

“He can be assisted in overcoming his history if he will accept help, though this is up to him and, at present, a matter of uncertainty. I would not want my reasons to be understood as sending Mr. Bell to prison with a judicial stamp of incorrigibility on him. There are enigmatic aspects to his history and character, and I find myself genuinely wondering what his future may hold,” Campbell said before Bell was led from the courtroom to begin serving his sentence.

A trial for Baker, Bell’s co-accused, is scheduled for next year.

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

The Curator independently decides what topics and products we feature. When you purchase an item through our links, we may earn a commission. Promotions and products are subject to availability and retailer terms. 

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

The number of Canadian citizens and permanent residents unaccounted for since the Nepal flash flooding has risen to 32, including Coquitlam couple Sumit and Shubakshi Rawla.

Their daughter says they were on a guided pilgrimage in the region and haven’t been heard from since the morning of Aug. 26.

“We’ve been so worried,” Kenisha Rawla told Global News.

“Me and my sister personally have made over 200 phone calls to our parents just hoping that even for a moment if they get a second of signal they can contact us.”

The foreign affairs minister is urging caution as the search continues.

“Those 32 Canadians are unaccounted for but no Canadian deaths have been confirmed,” Anita Anand said on Friday.

The Rawlas were travelling with Port Moody residents Dhaval and Megha Shah, who also remain unaccounted for.

“They were somewhere in that location and the company lost contact with anybody at around 8:30 that morning,” Nikita Shah, relative of Megha and Dhaval Shah said on Thursday.

“So we don’t know where they have been since then.”

Thousands are still missing after the tragedy and at least 579 people are confirmed dead.

The scale of the destruction is visible at one Nepal’s main border crossings into China, where the area is buried in mud and debris.

“Further north, some of the communities are completely cut out,” Tamara Demuria, Corus International Chief Humanitarian Officer, said.

“We cant even get there to assess what’s left. The damage is way more severe.”

Ottawa is providing $5 million in humanitarian aid and sending five consular officials to Nepal.

But some want Canada to go further.

“We really want to really push the Canadian government to help by sending rescue teams because we know there’s so many Canadians there too, aside from our parents, and their families must be worried sick like we are,” Rawla said.

For families still waiting, there’s little to do but search for information and find strength in each other.

“Community support, emotional support, are what one should seek at times like this,” Gaurav Subedi with the Nepal Cultural Society of B.C. said.

“But miracles do happen.”

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