Before record sales collapsed, everyone made most of their money from selling music. The idea of licensing your music for a commercial was considered the height of selling out. Today, though, this is considered to be a normal and necessary way of surviving as a musician.

But someone had to be first, right? But who?

It’s generally accepted that the Velvet Underground was the first true alternative band. And fifteen years after Lou Reed left the band, he might have been the first even alt-rock artist to “sell out” by licensing a song to a TV commercial.

In 1985, he appeared in an ad for a Honda scooter with his song “Walk on the Wild Side” in the background. He took some stick for it—that sort of thing just wasn’t done back then—but he did help start the destruction of the stigma of using actual songs in TV commercials.

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

True or false: Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers was in a band with Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten. True.

It was 1983 and the Chili Peppers were still an unknown group, and things weren’t going well. Flea thought maybe it was time to leave. At the same time, it just so happened that Johnny’s post-Pistols band, Public Image Ltd., was in LA looking for a new bass player. Flea went to the audition, which consisted of just him and the drummer jamming onstage.

Out in the audience in the dark was Johnny, who was listening intently. Flea completely blew everyone away and was offered the job on the spot–which he accepted.  All he had to do was come back in the morning and sign the contracts.

Flea went home but immediately had second thoughts. He and a buddy stayed up doing heroin all night–and at seven in the morning, Flea called Johnny and said, “No, thanks.”  Probably a good move, huh? Turning down the job, I mean. Not the heroin part.

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

If you spend any time at record shows or in record shops—anyplace you can find used physical products—you may stumble across some interesting counterfeit records.

A counterfeit release looks exactly like the real thing but was manufactured illegally by someone who is not the artist’s record label. This sort of piracy has been capped at the knees by the spread of streaming services around the planet, which has affected the sales of all physical products, including illegal stuff.

There are high-quality counterfeit CDs and LPs still to be found, many of which come from China and Russia.

But this is hardly a new thing. Even back in the 60s and 70s, there was something some record collectors call “mafia records.” These looked almost exactly like what you could buy in the store but were clever counterfeits. This was how some members of the mob earned.

Today, record collectors must beware of these fakes because they’re obviously not worth as much as the real thing.

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

The federal government is spending nearly $270 million to help New Brunswick modernize a pair of energy facilities that officials say are key to Ottawa’s plan to double the capacity of  Canada’s electrical grid by 2050.

The bulk of the money is a $219-million loan from the Canada Infrastructure Bank to extend the life of the province’s largest hydroelectric dam, located west of Fredericton on the Saint John River.

The province will also receive a $50-million grant to upgrade its Salisbury Terminal near Moncton, which officials say is key to managing the flow of electricity across the provincial grid.

Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson made the announcements Tuesday during a news conference in front of the massive Mactaquac Dam.

“New Brunswick is critical to this plan and so are today’s investments,” he said. “Together, these two projects will strengthen New Brunswick’s electricity system while creating jobs, attracting investment, supporting affordability, and lowering emissions.”

New Brunswick’s Crown-owned electric utility is preparing the 672-megawatt Mactaquac Generation Station for a multibillion-dollar overhaul aimed at extending its operational life to 2068.

The new funding will pay for technical studies, regulatory reviews, First Nations engagement and planning for the Mactaquac Life Achievement Project, according to Natural Resources Canada.

In 2016, NB Power agreed to a plan in 2016 to spend up to $3.6 billion to prolong the life of the dam, which would have otherwise been decommissioned by 2030 due to concrete swelling.

The new funding will support technical studies, regulatory reviews, First Nations engagement and planning for the Mactaquac Life Achievement Project, according to Natural Resources Canada.

On Tuesday, NB Power CEO Lori Clark said the total cost for the project is now expected to be close to $9 billion.

Hodgson would not commit the federal Liberal government to spending more on the dam, noting that electricity generation is within provincial jurisdiction.

However, he said the federal government will need to help provinces and territories keep costs low as they work to meet federal clean energy regulations that call for a net-zero electricity grid by 2050.

“In the budget coming up, you will see a number of initiatives we are working on to work … with provinces and territories to help them realize the growth that they need in an affordable way,” the minister told reporters.

“This is clearly an indication that we understand how important it is for our prosperity to grow our electricity generating capabilities and we understand that the federal government needs to do its part in helping to make that affordable.”

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt said the Mactaquac Generating Station is important to the entire Maritime region.

In the event of a system-wide blackout, the dam can start generating electricity without relying on an external power supply, making the largest so-called “black-start” facility in the region.

“We often call it the battery of the Maritimes,” said Holt. “Having this kind of renewable energy that we can turn on and off is critical, not only to our province, but to our neighbours in Prince Edward Island and in Nova Scotia and beyond.”

The dam supplies 30 per cent of the province’s renewable energy requirements and 20 per cent of its overall electricity demand, officials said.

The investments come as NB Power is looking for ways to fix ageing infrastructure without imposing massive rate hikes on its customers.

Since the 1980s, concrete portions of the the dam have been affected by a chemical process called alkali-aggregate reaction. The reaction causes concrete to swell and crack, requiring substantial repairs and maintenance.

Just last week, NB Power applied to the provincial regulator to raise rates by 17.4 per cent over the next three years as it plans to spend $4 billion on maintaining the provincial grid.

Some of that money will be used to transition the province’s only remaining coal-fired generating plant to a facility that burns wood pellets to generate electricity.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

A man who admitted his role in the massive gold heist at Toronto’s Pearson airport says he took 30 per cent of the gold and started melting and selling it before travelling to Pakistan, where he claims he was kidnapped and abused to give it up.

Arsalan Chaudhary is testifying in the trial of Parmpal Sidhu, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence in the 2023 heist.

Chaudhary told a Brampton, Ont., court today he planned the heist with Simran Preet Panesar, who is wanted by authorities, and they divided boxes full of one-ounce gold bars, adding that he took 30 per cent and Panesar took 70 per cent of the boxes.

He says he took the gold to a condo in the Greater Toronto Area and started melting it for sale, acquiring $200,000 to $300,000 in cash, and he travelled to Mexico and Portugal before he ended up in Pakistan.

Chaudhary testified that a group of people in police uniforms abducted him in Pakistan and abused him, so he was forced to let people they worked with take the remaining gold from his condo unit in Canada and take his cash from his cousin’s house in Pakistan.

He says the kidnappers let him go and he went to Dubai, where he stayed until he came back to Canada on Jan. 12.

Chaudhary was sentenced this spring to four years in prison after pleading guilty to theft over $5,000, and he was given 40 years to pay back $22 million in restitution.

Prosecutors allege that Sidhu, an Air Canada employee at the time, provided a doctored waybill that allowed another man to pick up more than $22 million in gold and currency from a Pearson airport cargo bay in what investigators have called one of the largest gold heists in Canadian history.

Peel regional police have said 6,600 gold bars weighing more than 400 kilograms were stolen from the airport on April 17, 2023.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

Parking at Penticton Regional Airport is about to get significantly more expensive, with rates set to increase between 400 and 500 per cent starting November 1.

The changes are substantial across the board, with every parking category seeing a steep increase, as the comparison below shows.

“Everyone wants to get on the bandwagon to get more money,” says Donna, a Penticton resident frustrated by the rising costs.

Transport Canada, which owns and operates the airport, says the increases are necessary because existing fees no longer reflect market rates.

In a federal regulatory notice published in the Canada Gazette, the department says the rules governing parking fees were last updated in 2012. It says operating costs at its five federally owned airports are growing and the airports are running at a deficit.

Penticton is one of five airports affected by the federal initiative. The others are Port Hardy and Sandspit in B.C., Sept-Îles in Quebec, and Wabush in Labrador. While Penticton’s new rates have been announced, it is not yet clear how much parking fees will change at the other four airports.

Some travellers acknowledge that Penticton’s parking rates may have been low, particularly compared with larger airports. One traveller says some locals have even used the airport lot for long-term parking without flying, taking advantage of rates that were cheaper than some paid parking lots around town.

But while there may be room for an increase, an employee who works at the airport says the size of the jump goes too far.

“I think they have made a big mistake,” the airport employee says. “I don’t mind them putting it up a little because it was pretty cheap, but they put it up to its equal to Kelowna.”

Most of the parking at the Penticton airport is unpaved and does not have the same infrastructure, such as lighting, that larger airports have.

For many Penticton residents, the parking increases come as everyday expenses continue to climb, from filling up at the gas pump to putting groceries on the table.

Donna says her household has already had to make changes to keep up with the rising cost of living, cutting back on things they used to enjoy.

“We don’t go out for meals as much as we used to,” she says.

And with airport parking rates set to jump by hundreds of per cent, residents like Donna say it’s another expense they’ll have to think twice about, especially when travelling is already costing more.

Travellers will have to decide whether leaving their cars at the airport is still worth the cost.

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

All charges in a decades-old murder cold case that were laid two years ago after genetic genealogy testing are being withdrawn in Prince Edward Island, after police said they had lost the majority of the physical evidence.

The Crown Attorney’s Office says Charlottetown Police lost crucial evidence from the investigation into Byron Carr’s 1988 death, meaning there is no longer a reasonable likelihood of conviction.

Todd Joseph Gallant, 59, who was also known as Todd Joseph Irving, was charged with first-degree murder and interfering with human remains in 2024.

Carr, a former teacher, was 36 years old when he was found strangled and stabbed to death in his bedroom on Nov. 11, 1988.

One of the most chilling details at the crime scene was a note written on a wall in the killer’s apparent handwriting: “I WILL KILL AGAIN.”

The cold case was reopened in 2007, and while there were no new leads at the time, investigators did have DNA evidence. Specifically, a pair of underwear believed to belong to the killer was found at the scene.

During a news conference in January 2024, then-police Chief Brad MacConnell said the “bigger development” in the case began in 2022 when police started using genetic genealogy.

He went on to say that crime scene exhibits were used to create a DNA profile that was uploaded to family genealogy sites to find common relatives.

“Genetic genealogy is a game-changer for police in how we investigate major crimes,” MacConnell said.

MacConnell said Gallant, who would have been 21 at the time of the murder, had been identified as a suspect much earlier in the investigation.

Gallant had pleaded not guilty to the charges and a jury trial was scheduled for next month.

— with a file from The Canadian Press 

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

Actor Selma Blair was arrested after she was accused of injuring two flight attendants during a trip from Los Angeles to New York on a Delta Air Lines flight.

Blair is also accused of kicking a police officer taking her to the hospital and kicking a nurse once she got there.

The 54-year-old actor pleaded not guilty on Monday to two counts of assault for state charges involving the officer and the nurse, The Associated Press reports.

Blair also faces separate federal charges based on what happened on the flight, which her representatives said was brought on by a severe medical emergency.

On the plane, Blair allegedly punched one flight attendant and bit another. She also reportedly attempted to open the plane door while in the air, according to court documents, viewed by Variety.

Global News has not independently viewed the court documents.

A spokesperson for Delta Air Lines told Global News that there was no operational impact to the flight that landed ahead of schedule at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and law enforcement responded upon the flight’s arrival.

“Delta has zero tolerance for unruly or unlawful behavior, as the safety of our customers and crew always comes first,” the Delta spokesperson added.

The Cruel Intentions actor was detained by police around 11 p.m. local time on Sunday after the Delta Air Lines jet parked at the gate at JFK, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The Port Authority said that Blair and one of the flight attendants were taken to a hospital for evaluation.

A police officer taking Blair to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center said in charging documents, viewed by Global News, that while she was securing Blair to a stretcher, Blair pulled a leg from the straps and kicked her repeatedly around the face, neck and chest, causing serious pain and substantial swelling.

Later, a nurse moving Blair claimed that the actor kicked her in the chest, causing substantial pain, according to the charging documents.

Following the incident, a representative for Blair told Variety: “Selma experienced a medical emergency that led to the alleged conduct. Upon landing, she received immediate medical attention and is currently in stable condition.”

When entering her not guilty plea on Monday, the Legally Blonde actor’s lawyer Shawn Barnes reportedly told a judge that Blair’s action were not intentional.

He said the actor, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), missed several doses of “a powerful medication that controls severe neurological symptoms.”

Barnes said she had gotten on the flight in Los Angeles after a heavy workload and hit her head during the flight. He said these factors along with the altitude led to “a state of severe confusion and disorientation.”

The judge set Blair’s bail at US$20,000 cash or $60,000 bond and she left court with her lawyers. Her next hearing is set for Jan. 19.

The matter has been taken over by the FBI, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Global News has reached out to the New York Port Authority Police Department and the FBI for further comment, but has not received a response.

This is not the first time Blair has been involved in an incident aboard a plane.

In 2016, Blair apologized for an outburst on a plane, during which she was removed from a flight on a stretcher.

In a statement to Variety, Blair admitted to having mixed alcohol and medication.

“I take this very seriously, and I apologize to all of the passengers and crew that I disturbed and am thankful to all of the people who helped me in the aftermath,” Blair said at the time. “I am a flawed human being who makes mistakes and am filled with shame over this incident.”

Blair revealed that she was diagnosed with MS in 2018 in an Instagram post, writing, “I am disabled. I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken GPS.”

She added, however, that thanks to the support of the cast and crew of a Netflix show she was filming, as well as her friends and family, “We are doing it. And I laugh and I don’t know exactly what I will do precisely but I will do my best.”

Blair thanked her doctor, saying that she had been trying to get a diagnosis for a long time.

“I have had symptoms for years but was never taken seriously until I fell down in front of trying to sort out what I thought was a pinched nerve. I have probably had this incurable disease for 15 years at least. And I am relieved to at least know.”

“I am in the thick of it but I hope to give some hope to others,” Blair wrote.

“I am a forthcoming person and I want my life to be full somehow. I want to play with my son again. I want to walk down the street and ride my horse. I have MS and I am OK.”

View this post on Instagram

Statistics Canada reports that it’s estimated that over 93,500 Canadians of all ages currently live with MS — an inflammatory neurological disease of the central nervous system that impacts one’s brain, spinal cord and optic nerves — and the Public Health Agency of Canada anticipates that number to rise to 133,635 by 2031.

—With files from The Associated Press

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

Cycling advocates are looking to escalate the legal battle over bike lanes on three major Toronto streets, asking the Supreme Court of Canada to take on the Ford government’s years-long effort to tear them out.

In a mid-August ruling, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned a lower court’s decision that removing bike lanes violated the Canadian Charter, allowing the government to proceed with its plan.

The decision reactivated a policy that the Ford government first put in place at the end of 2024 to restore space for vehicles — and remove bike lanes — from portions of Bloor Street West, Yonge Street and University Avenue.

On Tuesday, the government said it would begin that work by reverting a 600-metre section of Bloor to vehicle-only lanes.

Ahead of the removal, CycleTO and EcoJustice, two groups that launched the charter challenge, revealed they are appealing the case to Canada’s highest court asking it to strike down the policy as unconstitutional and weigh in on the government’s ability to implement potentially life-threatening legislation.

“The consequences of this case reach far beyond bike lanes and beyond Ontario,” said Bronwyn Roe with Ecojustice.

“We are asking the Supreme Court to hear this case in order to provide clarity about the scope of the rights to life and security of the person protected by Section 7 of the Charter.”

In the August ruling that paved the way for the lanes’ removal, Justice Grant Huscroft took issue with the lower court allegedly meddling in the business of the legislature.

Huscroft wrote “it is illegitimate for courts to involve themselves in matters of legislative policy.”

While Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said the ruling underscored the government’s “clear and direct mandate” to fight gridlock, advocates argue their substantive arguments still apply.

“The Ontario Court of Appeal found that, as a matter of law, removing protected bike lanes could not infringe the Charter if there was no positive right to the bike lanes in the first place. The court did not consider, let alone overturn, the superior court’s factual findings,” Roe said.

Michael Longfield, the executive director of Cycle Toronto said their principal arguments will be reintroduced in front of the supreme court, if the case is heard.

“Bike lanes do not cause traffic congestion, ripping them out will put people’s lives at risk, there’s no network of side streets that can replace the bike lanes that are here,” Longfield said.

The Supreme Court of Canada will only hear an appeal if the case “raises a question of public importance,” the court states on its website.

According to the Court, a case that meets that bar for appeal could include one that involves the interpretation of constitutional rights, or if it raises a new issue of law or if it requires the Court to resolve conflicting decisions from courts of appeal.

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

Ontario is set to move parts of the province’s northwest region to permanent daylight time in order to align with Manitoba.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford says there is overwhelming consensus among municipalities, First Nations and businesses to make the time change permanent.

Rickford says the province intends to make a regulatory change in the Time Act on Nov. 1 to allow regions west of the 90th meridian to align with Manitoba.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced last month the province would stop twice-annual clock changes and stay on daylight time year-round in the central time zone, leaving it one hour ahead of the other Prairie provinces rather than aligned with them.

British Columbia said in March that it was moving to permanent Pacific daylight time.

Alberta also switched to permanent daylight time this year in what it calls Alberta time, which means it now has the same time as Saskatchewan year round.

More to come.

© 2026 The Canadian Press