Here’s a story about the old days of radio. In 1924, there were all kinds of stories about life on Mars. Might the beings living there be trying to communicate with Earth? An American radio astronomer named David Todd wanted to find out.

He and a partner came up with a way that was supposed to intercept radio signals coming from Mars and then print out the radio waves on paper. There was one catch, though. For this to work, all Earthly radio stations had to fall silent for five minutes at the beginning of each hour for three consecutive days: August 21 to 24, 1924.

And it actually worked. Sort of.

Terrestrial radio silence was achieved, and some radio wave scribbles were captured. Strangely, they resembled a crudely drawn face, something that was dutifully reported in the newspapers. However, Jenkins didn’t believe it meant anything, and he stopped his research, fearful that he’d be branded a kook.

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

The pristine, subarctic wilderness of Churchill, Man. is home to thousands of beluga whales this time of year, and soon hundreds of polar bears will also gather around the community, waiting for the sea ice to form.

“It’s really incredible, we get this big migration, thousands of beluga whales migrate here and they spend the summer in the estuary,” said Kieran McIver, the manager of Churchill field operations for Polar Bears International.

The non-profit organization just wrapped up its ‘beluga boat’ season, which launched on July 15 to coincide with Arctic Sea Ice Day. Throughout the summer and until the end of August, the beluga boat heads out on the water daily, capturing and livestreaming underwater images of the beluga whales in the Churchill River estuary and along the shores of the Hudson Bay.

McIver says the beluga whales are curious of the boat and cameras and often follow them, something that is relatively unique to the belugas in the Churchill-area, he says.

“They seem to just be really curious,” he said.

“Something that kind of makes them unique as well is their cervical spine is not fused vertebrae, so that gives them the ability to move their heads and necks around. So when they are coming and approaching the paddle boarders or kayakers or us on the beluga boat, you can see them physically looking up at you – so it’s a pretty neat experience.”

Polar Bears International is the only non-profit organization in the world dedicated solely to polar bear conservation through research and education.

“Our goal is to keep polar bears in the Arctic for a long time and to do that we need to understand the species,” Polar Bears International director of science Alysa McCall told Global News.

The organization does a variety of research on the bears, aiming to better understand their physiology, genetics, behaviour, and the coexistence between humans and bears.

“We want to keep polar bears around for a long time, and we also know more polar bears are spending a longer time on-land, especially in Canada, so we have this obligation to support the people that now have to increasingly live with this very large predator,” McCall said.

Polar Bears International also supports tracking research in conjunction with Environment & Climate Change Canada and the University of Alberta. Each year, tracking collars are put on about ten female bears in the Churchill area.

McCall said that research is useful in understanding the bear’s patterns as they deal with their biggest threat; sea ice loss caused by climate change.

“I like to call them blubber-hunting ice bears,” McCall said. “They’re really out there to hunt seals, eat blubber, they’re mainly focused on fat, they’re on the ice – but within that, there is so much individual variation of where the females move – It might depend on their age, what their mom taught them, but the patterns we see our really cool.”

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

As demand for mail-in ballots continues to climb ahead of the Alberta referendum, some residents are reporting problems with the packages they have received from Elections Alberta.

Edmonton seniors Lorrie and John Jegen got their mail-in voting packages on Sept. 1. While Lorrie’s envelope contained all the required slips of paper, her husband’s was significantly lighter.

“All I got was… one ballot,” John Jegen said, holding up the slip of paper containing the first referendum question from the package he received — which was missing the other nine questions.

“Can’t do much with that.”

The couple applied to vote in advance to avoid lines at polling stations like the ones experienced during last year’s municipal election, when some voters waited several hours.

“The thought of standing in line for three or four hours because there’s no automatic tabulated voting machines and what have you … it’s tough for a couple like us,” Jegen said.

“My wife certainly won’t be able do it, and I would have a hard time too.”

After discovering the missing pages, Jegen said he contacted Elections Alberta and, unable to talk to a person, left a message asking what to do.

Jegen is still waiting for a response, but hopes to see the issue resolved quickly so his vote can count.

“I’m hoping they come back and say, ‘Yeah, okay, here’s your booklet’ or ‘Come and get it’ or ‘We’ll send it to you.’ But we’ll have to wait and see,” he said.

“I am one of the people who wants to stay in Canada and so is my wife, so it’s very important to us to make sure that our voices are heard.”

Elections Alberta says voters who receive incomplete packages should do what Jegen did — contact the agency so the issue can be corrected.

The special ballots come attached to each other, Elections Alberta said, explaining they’re all glued together at the top and have a cardboard backing like a notepad.

“There are a few, a couple handfuls right now of people reporting that they’re missing maybe question one from their ballot, or they’re missing the ballot package,” deputy chief electoral officer Dallas Stoesz said on Thursday.

“Those folks should get in touch with us. We’ll make sure to get them a proper set of ballots.”

The provincial agency is also addressing concerns about wording contained in some special ballot declaration forms.

A statement on certain forms asks voters to declare they are unable to vote at advance voting, which takes place Oct. 13 to 17 or on the Oct. 19 referendum day — or face a fine.

Elections Alberta said the language came from a previous version of the Election Act and will be removed from future ballot packages.

Stoesz said voters who receive forms containing the outdated wording can simply cross it out before submitting their ballot package.

“They complete the rest of the declaration, sign it, send it back — we will accept those,” she said. “Every special ballot package going out from now forward will have a different declaration with that line removed.”

The agency is making the changes as it grapples with unprecedented interest in mail-in voting ahead of the Oct. 19 referendum.

“This is absolutely a historic event. Not only has Alberta never done anything like this, nowhere in Canada has done anything like this before,” Stoesz said.

“Yes, we’ve had referendums. Yes, there’s been millions of ballots — but not concentrated like this.”

Elections Alberta says about 290,000 people have already applied for special ballots, up from 225,000 earlier in the week.

The spike in applications has prompted Elections Alberta to move up the deadline for requesting a special ballot.

Voters must now apply by Sept. 25, two weeks earlier than the original Oct. 9 deadline.

Stoesz said the change is intended to avoid a rush of last-minute applications and help ensure ballots can be delivered and returned on time, particularly with the Thanksgiving holiday affecting mail service.

Elections Alberta has said administering the referendum will be a massive undertaking that will require at least 60,000 workers.

The ballot contains 10 government-initiated questions dealing largely with immigration and constitutional reform, although public attention has focused on the final question asking Albertans whether they want to remain in Canada or proceed to a second, binding referendum on leaving Confederation.

The vote, announced Feb. 19, initially contained the first nine questions pertaining to immigration and the Constitution.

Then on May 21, Premier Danielle Smith announced a 10th question was being added, putting the issue of Alberta separatism in the hands of voters.

The question: “Should Alberta remain a province of Canada? Or should the government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”

Elections Alberta is encouraging voters to read the questions in advance and understand what they mean, as polling station staff are limited in what they can convey.

“Beyond having the posters and information about what the questions are, we won’t be able to offer any explanation on what the question mean or the intent of the questions,” said Michelle Gurney, media relations lead with Elections Alberta.

Once the polls close, the counting won’t stop until it’s done.

“There are no breaks. It is straight through. We do not have the option to go home and sleep and come back the next day and start. We have 48 hours from the time voting ends to complete the count,” Stoesz said, explaining that is why elections staff will be working in shifts around the clock.

Elections Alberta leadership will be receiving support from their counterparts across Canada during that window.

“Obviously we can’t stay awake for 60 hours and be coherent. So they’re gonna be coming and helping us because they are experienced professionals. They know exactly how to do this work,” Stoesz said.

With files from The Canadian Press

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

Stephen Armstromg is upbeat despite the fact a tree hit his home in Leaside during Wednesday afternoon’s storm and his front sidewalk and door are blocked by the giant tree limbs.

“We had just come in the house and we started videotaping out the front door because the wind was coming sideways and we went into the back of the house and all of a sudden bang,” said Armstrong.

A massive branch from a maple tree, which sits on a boulevard owned by the city, ripped away from the trunk, the limbs brushing up against the windows and tearing down some eavestroughs.

Armstrong says it appears his home, the truck in his driveway and the vehicles in his neighbour’s driveway were not damaged.

Armstrong had a plan to propose to his girlfriend of six years on Wednesday and was not prepared to let a storm derail his special plans.

“Nobody died, but it was a hell of a time, you know. When you get married it should be memorable. When you propose, this was memorable,” he said.

Armstrong shared a video with Global News that his son filmed showing the proposal.

As his fiance is trying on a new coat Armstrong had bought her with a box hidden in the pocket, his phone begins to ring.

“The phone’s ringing and my neighbours are telling me about the tree, as I’m trying to propose,” says Armstrong.

His girlfriend found the ring and said “yes.”

Shabnam Saffari told Global News she was confused by how calm Armstrong was, given a massive tree limb had just fallen onto the front lawn striking the edge of the home.

“It was really memorable. It was a stressful and emotional day mixed together for us,” Saffari said.

The neighbours called 311 on Armstrong’s behalf. He said the City of Toronto told them it’s a priority for them to remove the fallen tree given it’s blocking a sidewalk.

“Just to propose and have her say ‘yes’ was great but god says ‘you can’t leave’,” said Armstrong, referring to the fact the front door is still blocked.

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

The beleaguered Rogers Stadium suffered “significant” damage after a powerful storm swept through Toronto on Wednesday evening.

Photos of the open-air Downsview Park stadium show blue bleachers strewn across partially collapsed grandstands.

The sign outside the open-air venue also looked to be damaged, partially stripped of its red cover.

Live Nation Canada, which operates the stadium, said the venue sustained “significant damage” but no one was hurt. It did not immediately provide details about the extent of the damage.

It’s the latest setback for a stadium beset by issues since it opened last summer.

Live Nation said it would make adjustments after concertgoers initially complained the 50,000-person venue seemed ill-prepared to handle crowds and local officials raised noise complaints.

The venue last hosted a show on Aug. 23 for K-pop superstars BTS and is next scheduled to welcome AC/DC on Sept. 16.

Wednesday’s storm walloped Toronto with strong winds and dumped more than 100 millimetres of rain on some hard-hit neighbourhoods, prompting widespread power outages and flooding.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

MONTREAL – The Montreal Alouettes have another opportunity to punch their ticket to the CFL playoffs Friday night.

After failing to clinch their spot last week in Winnipeg, the Alouettes return home hoping to secure a post-season berth — and a home playoff game — with a victory over the surging B.C. Lions at Percival Molson Stadium.

Montreal would also assure itself of a playoff appearance for a seventh straight year with a Toronto Argonauts loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Labour Day Monday.

“We’ve been playing good football through 11 games, but the job is not done,” said Alouettes head coach Jason Maas. “Our goal every week is to go 1-0. That is real in our building. We prepare every week, we respect our opponents. When you’re winning, good things happen.”

Montreal (9-2) saw its seven-game winning streak end with a 44-28 loss to the Blue Bombers last week. The Alouettes remain atop the East Division, eight points ahead of second-place Toronto.

“We got to do a good job and be a mature football team,” said starting quarterback Davis Alexander. “Coming off a tough loss, there was a lot of emotion in that game. Guys are going to naturally want to knock out a team.

“We’ve got to play a full four quarters and make sure we keep our emotions to ourselves and play our best brand of football in front of our fans.”

Alexander will lead Montreal’s offence despite an injury scare that threatened to sideline him.

The 27-year-old suffered an apparent right calf injury in Winnipeg and later underwent an MRI on his calf and ankle. The tests showed no structural damage.

Alexander is still feeling the effects of the injury, which he has been partially nursing throughout the season. He has worn a compression sleeve on his heavily bandaged right leg this week while receiving treatment that included massages, stretching and light workouts.

Maas remains confident his quarterback will be ready.

“Once we got the imaging done and we knew there was nothing structurally wrong with him, it was just a couple days that he needed,” Maas said. ” It was really the willingness of him to see what he could kind of move through and how it would feel.

Each moment he was out there, he was kind of feeling better and better. He never had a setback this week at all.”

Alexander leads the CFL with 3,657 passing yards and 24 touchdown passes, tied with Toronto’s Chad Kelly for the league lead.

He and Montreal’s offence will face a major test against a B.C. defence that ranks first in the CFL in net defence, allowing 344.7 yards per game, and first against the run at 58.8 yards per contest.

The Lions (6-5) have also surged into form. After opening the season 1-5, B.C. has won five straight, including Sunday’s 45-24 victory over the Ottawa Redblacks. The Lions have not allowed more than 26 points in a game during their winning streak.

“We know they’ve got a good offence and an explosive quarterback,” said Montreal receiver Tyler Snead. “Defensively, they’ve really stepped it up these past couple weeks, just playing physical.”

Snead surpassed 1,000 receiving yards for the second consecutive season last week. He enters Friday’s game with 1,089 yards, just 40 shy of the career-high 1,129 he established last year.

Friday will also mark the return of linebacker Darnell Sankey to Montreal for the first time since signing with the Lions in the offseason.

Sankey spent three seasons with the Alouettes from 2023-25 and has recorded 57 defensive tackles this season. Now, he’ll be tasked with helping stop the offence he once practiced against every day.

“I love the city of Montreal,” said Sankey on Wednesday. “They treated me well. It’s just all business, though, at the end of the day. If you start letting your feelings get involved and start taking things personal, you start to not play your best football.”

Alexander called Sankey “a smart football player” and expects his former teammate to be fired up for his return.

“He’s going to have those boys tuned up and ready to go,” Alexander said. “It’s a privilege to play against a guy like that.”

B.C.’s unusual week has added another wrinkle. Rather than returning home after Sunday’s win, the Lions stayed in Ottawa, practising there Tuesday and Wednesday before travelling to Montreal on Thursday.

Lions head coach Buck Pierce acknowledged the arrangement is unusual but embraced the opportunity for his team to spend more time together.

“Some of the best things about this league are these short weeks, these Eastern trips for a Western team to come out and play a good physical football team and spending a week together,” said Pierce.

B.C. has won six straight against Montreal dating back to July 2023. The Alouettes, however, are a perfect 6-0 at home this season.

“They are a physical group that is extremely well-coached,” Pierce said. “They execute at an extremely high level. We have to make sure we’re able to execute at a high level. If you don’t against that team, you’ve seen throughout the course of the season what can happen in those situations.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2026.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

Drex from 102.1 The Edge and 640 Toronto sat down with Zav Trudeau, the 18-year-old son of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, to talk about his newly launched music career. And what is he trying to do? He’s trying to get past that family name. He knows that there’s pressure that comes with it. But will he be able to succeed? We think he’s well on his way. He’s got a hit single out right now called “Downtown” getting spins on pop radio across the country.

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

Eligible junior high and high school students across Halifax Regional Municipality will be able to ride public transit for free after the provincial government and municipality came to an agreement to continue its Student Transit Pass Program.

After months of uncertainty following the province’s decision to cut funding to the program, it was announced Wednesday — the day before the school year began — that students in Grades 7 to 12 will once again receive the passes.

According to the municipality, the Halifax Regional Centre for Education will hand out transit passes for students attending five Halifax schools where public transit is “more practical than school buses.”

The province’s Department of Opportunities and Social Development (OSD) is funding passes for youth aged 13 to 18 who are connected to Employment Support and Income Assistance, which amounts to more than 1,700 students.

The municipality said it is funding transit passes for all remaining grades 7 through 12 students as well.

“We’re excited that the program will now be expanding to include private schools as well as homeschooled students and (students at) public schools who were included in the program last year,” said Anthony Edmonds, Halifax Transit’s acting director of planning.

The province announced in February it was cutting its $1.2-million contribution to the program.

At the time, the municipality was uncertain whether it could shoulder the burden.

Education Minister Brendan Maguire told reporters Thursday it was never the province’s plan to cut the program entirely. He said $600,000 of that funding, for example, was redirected to OSD to provide passes to eligible youth connected to income assistance.

“What we were going to pay for, and always were going to pay for, is any access that those kids needed to (get to) school and our OSD clients. So I think it just became who’s responsible for what,” he said.

“On our end, we continue to provide what we’ve always provided: $600,000 will be coming from OSD for income assistance clients, and then the five high schools (…) where the students need school bus passes, we’ll provide them with $500,000. So we’re still providing the same amount of money.“

With the uncertainty around the future of the program, Coun. Kathryn Morse said it reveals a problem with how transit is funded and supported in Nova Scotia.

“Most other provinces provide predictable operational funding for transit systems. Here in Nova Scotia, we don’t have that from the province,” she said.

“So I think that’s something we need to work on in the future just to get that more continuity, more predictability into our transit programs.”

The province’s opposition leaders said they were glad to see the program funded, but called into question Maguire’s narrative.

“So they can call it whatever they want, but they are reinstating the thoughtless and cruel cut that they made in the spring,” said NDP Leader Claudia Chender.

Iain Rankin, the interim leader of the Liberal Party, called it a “strange communications exercise.”

“It’s just a strange communications exercise to not just admit that they were wrong and just say that they’re wrong and that they are bringing it back,” he said.

The student passes will be valid until Aug. 31, 2027 and will be delivered through Halifax Transit’s mobile fare payment app, HFXGO.

Physical passes will be available upon request.

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

The iconic Canadian Forces Snowbirds will make their final performance at the 113th Grey Cup in Calgary this fall.

The iconic military aerobatics team will take to the skies on Nov. 15 as part of the championship celebration at McMahon Stadium, the Canadian Football League announced Thursday on social media.

The final flight had previously been scheduled to take place in Sacramento, Calif., where the Snowbirds are set to perform at the California Capital Airshow on Oct. 10 and 11.

The Snowbirds, officially known as 431 Air Demonstration Squadron based out of Moose Jaw, Sask., have been performing with the CT-114 Tutor aircraft since 1971.

The jets are being retired following the 2026 season, ahead of transitioning to new planes in the early 2030s.

“As we close out the Snowbirds’ 55th anniversary, I want to thank all Canadians for celebrating our team over this past season,” said said Major-General Denis O’Reilly, deputy commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The legendary team has previously performed at three Grey Cups — the 101st, 106th and 109th. This year’s championship game is the 113th edition.

The 113th Grey Cup is scheduled for Nov. 15 at McMahon Stadium in Calgary.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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

Election officials in Alberta said Thursday they’ve seen a surge of interest in people wanting to vote early by mail for the Alberta referendum on whether residents want to hold a binding separation vote.

Elections Alberta also said that, after doing some polling, it’s anticipating a voter turnout of 85 per cent — a figure that would surpass the provincial record of 81.8 per cent seen in the 1935 general election.

Dallas Stoesz, the deputy chief electoral officer, told reporters the agency has received about 65,000 more applications for mail ballots since Tuesday, bringing the ongoing tally to 290,000.

That figure is almost five times higher than the nearly 60,000 mail-in ballots requested for the province’s 2023 general election.

Stoesz said interest is so high for the referendum that the agency has moved up the deadline to apply for the special ballots to Sept. 25, a full two weeks earlier than what was originally planned and advertised (Oct. 9.)

“That is a lot of volume to move,” she said of the mail-in ballots, explaining they need to be printed, sorted, mailed out, received and then, of course, counted.

Stoesz said the need to shift the deadline and the logistical challenges of doing so many mail-in ballots was emblematic of the historic nature of the 10-question vote set for Oct. 19.

“Not only has Alberta never done anything like this, nowhere in Canada has done anything like this before,” she said.

“Yes, we’ve had referendums. Yes, there’s been millions of ballots, but not concentrated like this.”

She said another reason the agency changed the application deadline from Oct. 9 is to avoid complications in mail delivery that would likely arise as a result of the Thanksgiving holiday on Oct. 12.

“We anticipate there will be a surge in final, last-minute requests,” Stoesz said.

“We didn’t want that big push to come right before that Thanksgiving date when there is no mail service.”

The agency also addressed concerns Thursday from some Albertans who have already received their mail-in ballots and found a form requiring them to declare they were unable to vote in person or risk steep fines or even jail time.

Stoesz said the declaration isn’t necessary and was a requirement under previous provincial rules that limited mail-in ballots to be for only those who were physically unable to vote in person.

Albertans no longer need a reason to vote by mail, and Stoesz said those who are doing so for the referendum can simply cross that section out and their votes will be counted.

She said the form has been removed from packages now going out the door.

The mix-up led to criticism from the Opposition NDP on Thursday.

NDP house leader Christina Gray said additional confusion was the last thing Albertans need for such an important vote and she called on Elections Alberta to re-send ballots without the form.

“To be clear, this is entirely (Premier) Danielle Smith’s fault,” Gray said.

“She is responsible for calling this unneeded, unasked-for referendum that has caused damage in our province and so much confusion.”

Gray said she was glad to hear that voter turnout could be so high, and added that she knows the majority of Albertans don’t want to separate.

“Having that strongly communicated through the vote is so important,” she said.

The 10 questions on the ballot largely cover immigration and constitutional reform, but public and political focus is on the final one on separation.

That question asks Albertans whether they want to stay in Canada or to have a second, binding referendum on quitting Confederation.

The agency said that because provincial law requires all ballots be counted by hand, unofficial results for the separation question won’t be available until after midnight.

© 2026 The Canadian Press