We all know that music can be good for the mind, body, and soul, which is why researchers continue to look at how music can be used for treating all manner of maladies.

A recent study at UC Irvine took saliva samples from a choir before and after they performed a piece by Beethoven. They found that a specific antibody—something called secretory immunoglobulin A—increased by 240% by the simple act of singing. This antibody’s job is to coat your throat, airways, and gut with a coating designed to protect us against any kind of respiratory virus we may breathe in.

How? Singing stimulates the vagus nerve, which controls our “rest and digest” responses. Singing helps the nervous system calm down, reduces stress hormones, and boosts your immune system.

So maybe the next time you feel a cold coming on, you might want to spend some time singing.

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

ANAHEIM – For the first time in three years, the Edmonton Oilers will not be seeing a Stanley Cup final.

The Oilers were eliminated Thursday night thanks to a 5-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series.

Edmonton hasn’t lost a playoff series outside of the Stanley Cup final since falling in the second round to Vegas in 2022-23. The Oilers lost to Florida the last two seasons in the Cup final.

Meanwhile, this is Anaheim’s first playoff appearance since 2017-18. The Ducks’ last playoff series win was against Edmonton in 2016-17.

Anaheim will next play the winner between the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Mammoth. Vegas leads that series 3-2, with Game 6 to be played on Friday.

The Oilers entered Thursday’s game coming off a 4-1 home win in Game 5 on Tuesday after the Ducks rattled off three straight wins to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven matchup.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2026.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

Vancouver police and the city’s mayor are denying unhoused people are being told to move ahead of FIFA, despite a homeless man’s claim he was told he would no longer be able to sleep under the Cambie bridge – because it was within the two-kilometre “beautification zone” around BC Place.

Although the city of Vancouver has billed the upcoming FIFA World Cup as an inclusive event, Wayne Bouchier told Global News that not everyone is feeling welcome.

“Every city in this world has homeless, you can’t just force homeless people away from the place you want to have, like, a certain aesthetic appeal to it,” Bouchier said in an interview.

Until earlier this year, Bouchier, who survives on a disability pension, and his dog ‘Chewy’, had been camping under the north end of the Cambie bridge.

The Indigenous veteran who had previously lived in the former CRAB Park encampment and at times, in an RV, said the site was central to the services he needed.

“This is the place I had to be because my doctors are on the west, all my food and resources are on the east,” Bouchier said, adding it was close to a public washroom in Coopers’ Park, where there was access to water during the summer.

After several months of taking down his tent and packing up his belongings every morning to comply with Vancouver’s overnight sheltering bylaw, Bouchier said daily enforcement by the city and police changed in February.

The VPD, he claims, had a heavier presence and police officers would be the ones waking him up, while city workers mentioned a two-kilometre radius around BC Place stadium.

“A no-go zone for anybody who was tenting or drug using or anything that doesn’t fit FIFA standards,” recalled Bouchier.

Both city workers and police, he said, told him the area under the bridge would be off limits during FIFA because it was within the two kilometres.

“First, the city would tell us, but then when the VPD officers come back to you know, just make sure were cleared out, they’d inform us that we’d have to move away from this area because eventually FIFA’s going to come,” Bouchier told Global News.

“We got to get this area cleared out in order for them to meet their standard, whatever, beautification.”

“The VPD is not telling homeless people to move out of the two-kilometre zone around the dome,” said Sgt. Adam Donaldson.

Vancouver police said in terms of enforcement, FIFA’s two-kilometre controlled area or “beautification zone” means nothing, and there is no change in policy for front-line officers.

“As long as any unhoused people or homeless people are abiding by existing city of Vancouver bylaws or they’re not on private property, they’ll be able to continue as they were throughout the event,” Donaldson said in an interview Thursday.

The VPD also said there’s been no change to how officers support city staff and park rangers in enforcing overnight sheltering bylaws, and police would only ask people to move if they were obstructing something or for public safety reasons.

Mayor Ken Sim was unavailable for an interview Thursday and his office told Global News it was unable to comment on this specific case in question.

In an interview on Sunday April 26, Sim said, regardless of FIFA, the city has always had a plan to make sure vulnerable residents are treated with care and empathy.

“Because they’re going through challenging times and so that won’t change,” the mayor said. “What will look a little different is in certain areas there will be, you know, street beautification, so more let’s say, trash removal and you know, sprucing up.”

In a statement provided by his office Thursday, Sim said throughout the World Cup, the city will continue its ongoing daily work across Vancouver to keep parks and sidewalks in compliance with bylaws to ensure all public spaces are safe and accessible.

“This work requires individuals to remove structures and pack up belongings that impact public access or safety,” said the mayor’s statement. “The City has no plans to ask residents to leave their neighbourhoods within the 2km controlled area surrounding BC Place.”

The City of Vancouver refused to do an interview Thursday, claiming, “We don’t have a spokesperson available.”

Bouchier and his dog are now staying in a private single-room occupancy (SRO) building, while the tents in the area he once called home are cleared out.

“FIFA, they want the world to come here and show the world – they don’t want the world to see the dirty laundry of the country,” Bouchier said. “You’re not going to be beautifying the city if you keep sweeping things under the rug.”

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

One of music’s most successful artists is wading into the debate over lifeguards at Vancouver beaches.

Peter Gabriel, originally part of Genesis, might never have reached the “Big Time” in 1986 if it had not been for a Vancouver lifeguard three years earlier.

In a Facebook post, Gabriel said that he was in Vancouver in 1983, opening for David Bowie, when he went windsurfing at Spanish Banks.

“The wind got too strong for me so I folded up the sail as I’ve been taught to do and swam toward the shore,” Gabriel wrote.

“However, I got caught up in the rip tide and ended up going out a lot faster than I could swim back in.”

Gabriel said he took off his orange vest and started waving it and the lifeguards on the beach swam out and saved him.

He said he was able to do the show that night with Bowie at BC Place.

Gabriel added that he is alarmed that some of the lifeguards may be removed as the Vancouver Park Board is considering cutting the number of lifeguards on duty by half, meaning they would be removed from Trout Lake, Sunset Beach, Third Beach and Spanish Banks.

A former lifeguard told Global News that lifeguards do more than just watch the water.

“We have multiple things that occur, anything from pedophiles that lifeguards catch, to the education numerous times a day to help people be safe,” Andrea Nicholson said.

“Children that get stuck on the sandbar with the tide coming in around them, making sure that we pull them off that in time, just being aware and doing the 360 constantly.”

Gabriel said he is an “enthusiastic supporter from the U.K.” of keeping the lifeguards at Vancouver’s beaches.

Global News reached out to the Vancouver Park Board but did not hear back by deadline.

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

At the 4 Loads Disposal Compound in Kelowna, B.C., heavy loads are a normal part of business but operators say  there’s a different kind of load they are being forced to carry, one that is financially hurtful.

“It’s just an added, added cost and an added burden,” said Colton Sobchak, one of the company’s operations managers.

The added burden is part of a growing trend of dumpsters being deliberately damaged by fires and vandalism.

Security photos from numerous local businesses show recycling and garbage bins ravaged by fire, tagged with graffiti and their secured lids busted.

“The last year and a half to two years is when it’s been the worst,” said Dustin Sobchak, also an operations manager.

A cardboard recycling bin behind the Treehouse Interiors furniture store was damaged by fire just this week, but according to Dustin Sobchak, it’s just one of numerous recent cases.

“Probably once a day with regards to graffiti, lids, burnt bins,” he said when asked how often the company is called about a damaged bin.

The operators say the frequent damage is causing a major hardship for the small family-owned business.

“It’s very impactful,” said Dustin Sobchak.

With claims driving up insurance costs and deductibles adding up, the operators say they have little choice but to cover the bin repairs and replacements out of pocket, spending thousands of dollars last year alone.

“Times are getting tough out there and you know, people can’t afford to keep paying for stuff that shouldn’t be happening,” said Dustin Sobchak.

While they feel for people down on their luck, in some cases lighting fires to keep warm, they say there are also acts of public mischief, citing recent security video of an offender.

“He just lit a piece of cardboard on fire, threw it in the bin. Next thing you know, the bin’s on fire,” said Colton Sobchak. “He didn’t stay and watch. He just walked away.”

The Sobchaks believe more government supports are needed amid the social disorder plaguing so many businesses.

“It’d be nice if the government worried about small businesses,” said Dustin Sobchak. “We pay PST, we pay GST, we pay property tax. I mean, the taxes never end and it’d be nice if the government could help everyone out.”

But in addition, they say tougher consequences are badly needed for those who insist on committing offences.

“When they do catch some of these people that damage and light these things on fire, they get a slap on the wrist and they’re out the next day,” said Colton Sobchak.

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

In Manawan, an Atikamekw community more than two and a half hours north of Montreal, leaders are calling the housing crisis in that village, and in Indigenous communities across the country, an injustice.

“They don’t even always have good water, they don’t even have their own bedroom, some parents have to sleep with five of their kids, their grandparents,” said Doreen Petiquay Barthold, communications officer for the Atikamekw Council of Manawan and the Office of Joyce’s Principle.

“Twenty-one people in one house is intense.”

A report by Amnesty International, commissioned by the Atikamekw council of Manwan, is revealing specifics about the housing crisis in that community.

It says that about half the families in a population of 3,000 lack a proper place to live.

Authorities there stress that the situation is similar in several Indigenous communities across Canada.

“This report is very important to denounce what’s happening in our community,” Chief of the Atikamekw Council of Manawan Sipi Flamand told Global News.

Pointing to the overcrowding in many homes, he said it is “very difficult” for families to “live in peace and harmony.”

“They can have some violence. Many young people stop going to school because they don’t have space to do their homework.”

Researchers admit the housing situation in Manwan was known to be terrible, but according to France-Isabelle Langlois, CEO of Amnesty International Canada’s francophone arm, the study is meant to highlight how it impacts civil and human rights.

“Not only in terms of adequate housing,” she explained, “but also on education, health, safety, privacy and even life.”

Officials note that the death of Joyce Echaquan — a woman from the community who died at the Joliette hospital hours away after filming herself being racially taunted by staff — is directly related.

There are no hospitals in Manawan.

“It’s a package of systemic racism and lack of public services,” Langlois said.

It’s why one of the report’s recommendations is for the Quebec government to fully adopt Joyce’s Principle and recognize systemic racism in provincial services.

Jennifer Petiquay-Dufresne, executive director of the Office of Joyce’s Principle, agrees that the underfunding of resources and services in communities like Manawan is systemic racism.

“How can we truly enjoy the best possible state of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health if we lack even the bare minimum, which is not only a decent roof over our heads, but also a dignified home, a place where we feel safe and where we don’t fear for our health and well-being?” she wrote in a statement.

The housing crisis in Indigenous communities has existed for decades, Indigenous leaders stress.

Francis Verreault-Paul, chief of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL), agrees with the report that both provincial and federal governments need to invest massively in housing and public services immediately.

He emphasizes the need to put jurisdictional squabbles aside.

“Right now, Quebec government has invested in policing infrastructure on First Nations communities. So, why not in housing? What about that jurisdictional argument?”

Verreault-Paul said more than 10,000 new homes are needed in Quebec communities alone, and that demanding resources isn’t about creating confrontation with governments, but rather about finding solutions.

Indigenous leaders hope the report will finally get politicians to recognize the urgency of the situation, and see that the billions of dollars needed in investments would benefit Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities alike.

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

A new $2.7-million facility at the University of Alberta Hospital is hoping to provide rehabilitation to inpatient neurology patients as soon as possible after an injury or stroke.

The new Neurology Rehabilitation Centre, located on the fifth floor of the hospital, is outfitted with more space and state of the art technology, like an Ekso, a wearable robotic exoskeleton that enables patients with lower-extremity weakness to stand and walk and a Zero-G, a robotic track system that provides dynamic body-weight support, preventing falls while allowing patients to practice movements safely.

“Prior to this neuro-rehabilitation innovation centre, we still had the same amazing therapists, but they did not have the space or the equipment to really optimize the treatments,” said Dr. Chester Ho, Medical co-lead for Neurosciences Care Alberta and professor and spinal cord injury research chair at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Ho brought the idea of the new facility to the University of Alberta Hospital foundation after doing several studies on the impact of early rehabilitation intervention on neurology patients.

“We basically want to take advantage of what we call neuroplasticity, which is the ability of the brain and spinal cord to be flexible and to recover as much as possible,” he said.

“With early rehabilitation we’re able to fully take advantage of neuroplasticity to get people to recover sooner and better, and that translates to a better recovery but also better quality of life.”

Patients like William Stephenson are showing why early intervention is so important. He suffered a spinal cord injury after he crashed his plane near Wetaskiwin.

“Shortly after takeoff, I had an engine stall and slammed into the ground,” Stephenson said. “When I woke up, I couldn’t feel my lefts. I was pretty much done for I figured.

“No one thought I was going to be able to walk again.”

After a few weeks of surgeries and recovering, he started taking part in Dr. Ho’s study looking into the impacts of early rehabilitation on spinal cord patients.

“They put an electro stimulus from my brain to my toe,” he said. “That’s the first I felt anything, it was instant. Boom! Just like that!

“I was freaking out, like I was telling the doctor, ‘Did you see that? Did you?'”

Stephenson walked into the opening of the neuro rehabilitation facility and is excited about how his involvement in the study will help others.

“It’s undoubtedly going to help a whole lot of people,” he said. “It changed my life.”

The University Hospital Foundation said the majority of the$2.7-million came from its yearly Festival of Trees fundraiser.

“I think the public system really does their best to support what is needed in the system, but this is about innovation,” Dr. Jodi Abbott, president and CEO of the University Hospital Foundation, said.

“Over time, an innovation becomes a standard of care. So, it’s a really critical thing that we’ve done.”

The centre is designed to treat patients with complex neurological conditions, using specialized equipment. It includes a modern neurorehabilitation gymnasium and an electrophysiology research suite.

Patients are now able to use the facility, and staff are hoping to get more patients into the facility in the future.

“This is why we’re here, and this is what we do, and we love what we do,” Dr. Ho said.

For more information, visit GiveToUHF.ca.

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

Edmonton Ward Anirniq councillor Erin Rutherford is hoping city administration can find some new ideas that would allow more transit access to the northwest part of the city, while remaining cost-effective.

The proposed north extension of the Metro Line was already been approved by council back in 2019, extending the line from the NAIT area northwest towards Castle Downs.

As part of the 2023-2026 capital budget, city council approved $20 million to acquire land for Phase 2.

The existing proposed route includes building a large bridge that would span from Blatchford over both Yellowhead Trail and the CN Walker rail yard.

From there, it would carry on at ground level  past neighbourhoods like Calder and Griesbach, before ending near Anthony Henday Drive and Campbell Road. But getting over the freeway and rail yard is a big aspect of the design.

“The cost to just get from Blatchford to Lauderdale is almost more than the entire rest of the line is to construct,” Rutherford said.

Rutherford added there could be a more-cost effective way to still ensure accessibility.

“We need to be able to have those conversations and shift the dialogue so that an area of the city is not paying for mass transit that they’ll never see,” said Rutherford.

Administration’s report is due back to council prior to budget talks later this year.

Rutherford said she is likely to move to make changes to the current city plan based on the report’s findings.

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

The family of Saskatoon’s sixth homicide victim of 2026 is sharing his story to raise awareness around the dangers of the street gang lifestyle.

Wray Musqua’s sister, Diana Musqua, says her brother was often caught between two worlds and is calling for stronger social support.

“There’s other sides to these people’s lives out here that are losing their lives. There’s always a story behind,” says Diana.

She remembers her brother as a natural born leader from a family of chiefs from the Keeseekoose First Nation.

She says since he was a teenager, he would come back to the nation for traditional ceremonies and return to Saskatoon as a member of a street gang.

“He was here for many years in this lifestyle, but he would come home. He always knew that he could not come home and remain home because, you know, it was a very destructive lifestyle,” says Musqua.

Wray Musqua was stabbed in the 2200 block of 22nd Street on April 24th and was taken to hospital for emergency surgery.

His family spoke to him for the last time and began the traditional transition process with the Roman Catholic faith, as well as traditional First Nation prayers.

“There’s a family there that they have, and he always said that. ‘That’s my family, too. You’re my family but this is my family too.’ He always said that. In the end, we knew that something like this would happen,” she said.

Diane says her brother struggled with living between his two families. She says his story shows the gaps in access to traditional services to support healing and how vital they can be in saving lives.

“We need to have more culture and tradition. We know what heals us. We know what helps us, we know. He knew, he knew what helped him. He knew what was healing him, because he attended those,” she says.

Wray died at 55, the second youngest of 17, with 15 children and 10 grandchildren.

His traditional wake to complete his transition process will begin May 1 in Saskatoon at the Saskatoon Indian & Métis Friendship Centre.

The major crimes unit and forensic identification section are investigating,

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

A hometown basketball veteran is now leading the hometown professional team.

“It’s super special and I take a lot of pride in it,” Mike Raimbault said.

Raimbault is the long-time University of Winnipeg men’s basketball head coach and is entering his first year as the Winnipeg Sea Bears head coach and general manager. He spent the last three years as assistant coach for the Sea Bears.

“It’s an absolute honour, obviously, to be a part of an organization from any standpoint as an assistant or the head coach,” Raimbault said.

He’s not the only local face returning to the Sea Bears.

On the first day of Sea Bears training camp on Thursday, Winnipeggers Mason Kraus and Kyler Filewich were back in teal and black and looking to quickly mesh with the new squad.

“Every day we have in here, we have to bring our best attitude and effort to build that chemistry, get in game shape and get ready to play in the next 10 days or so,” Filewich said.

Winnipegger Emmanuel Akot is also expected to return this year.

As for international players, former Canadian Elite Basketball League MVP Teddy Allen is back with the Sea Bears after playing for Winnipeg in 2024.

“I know a lot of these guys. Played with them or played against them before. Great group of guys. A lot of energy and experience. The young guys are getting after it,” Allen said.

This will be the Sea Bears’ fourth season in Winnipeg.

Adam Wedlake, the executive director of Basketball Manitoba, says the team has had a massive impact on the community and on registration in that time.

“In that first year, we experienced over 30 per cent growth in our numbers just in one year,” Wedlake said. “Since then, we have been able to see some growth on top of that but we have been able to sustain and to maintain that growth.”

The Sea Bears’ first game is in Edmonton on May 9.

They’ll return home a week later, bringing a hometown feel and local inspiration to Canada Life Centre.

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