No one is born a famous rock star. There are years of dues-paying that come before the fame, often including some pretty mundane day jobs.
Chris Cornell was a seafood wholesaler, which meant he went home smelling of fish guts.
Kurt Cobain worked as a school janitor while his wife, Courtney Love, could once be found stripping at a place called Jumbo’s Clown Room in Hollywood.
Brandon Flowers of the Killers worked as a bellboy at the Gold Coast Casino in Vegas.
And still with the hospitality industry, Eddie Vedder worked as a night security guard at a hotel. He was eventually fired when his boss realized that instead of doing his rounds, Eddie was spending all his time noodling on his guitar.
Labour Day? Already? Why do June, July, and August feel like one short month while February feels like three? New Music Friday is a bit sparse, but that’s by design. It’s not good marketing to drop new records on a weekend that radio often devotes to countdowns and pre-recorded programming. Yet, there are still a few things that demand our attention. (Oh, and believe it or not, I received my first new Christmas release of 2026. Too soon. WAY too soon.)
Singles
1. The Offspring, I Wanna Be Sedated (Concord Records)
It was 50 years ago that The Ramones released their debut album, so there have been all sorts of tributes drifting around. The Offspring, a band that wouldn’t exist had it not been for The Ramones, have recorded this cover, a fan favourite when they perform it live.
2. The Sammy Rose Band, Blue (Right Coast Records)
Here’s an alt-rock band from Florida that’s a mix of blues, pop, and even country. It’s a somewhat improbable formula, but it works.
I’ve always thought of Switzerland’s Accept as an amalgamation of The Scorpions and AC/DC. For this record, they’ve selected 19 songs from their career and re-imagined them featuring almost fifty guest musicians. That includes Billy Corgan, Kirk Hammett, Rob Halford, Phil Anselmo, Billy Sheehan, and more.
2. Dexy’s Midnight Runners, LOVE (Heavenly Recordings)
Quick: When was the last time Kevin Rowland released an album under the name Dexy’s Midnight Runners? If you guessed 1985, you’d be right. Before you click on the video, beware that this is not another Come On Eileen. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
3. Ellie Goulding, I Know Too Much (Interscope)
Ellie is one of my favourite British singer-songwriters of the last fifteen years and she just keeps getting better. This is her sixth studio album and was written between sessions of boxing and exercising. This, she says, somehow allowed for greater emotional depth. Fun fact: She has a classical album that hasn’t been released yet.
4. Gradience, Anomaly (Metal Blade)
Just in case you need something dark and aggressive, this is the debut album from a Danish band that works in the genre of “blackened death metal” that also touches on the experimental. Not for the time. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, either.
5. Personal Trainers, Human A**holes (Bella Union)
If I’m honest, I only picked this album because I knew you’d be curious about the title. This is the Dutch indie collective’s third album. Guitarists will appreciate the lyrics of this single.
6. PRESIDENT, Blood of Your Empire (Atlantic)
I’m throwing this one in because I’m fascinated by anonymous bands. PRESIDENT is a mysterious masked band from the UK that has generated quite a bit of online chatter over the last year. Who are they? What are they up to? Maybe this debut studio album will offer some clues.
Athletics Canada says one of its members has gone missing while attempting to break a mountain-running record in the Alps along the Switzerland-Italy border.
The national sport governing body says in a statement that Kalie McCrystal was last seen Tuesday.
It says the skyrunner and mountaineer was climbing Italy’s Matterhorn, a roughly 4,481-metre-tall, horn-shaped peak overlooking the Swiss town of Zermatt.
The statement says McCrystal has many years of experience in technical, high-altitude environments, and has climbed the Matterhorn before.
“This was therefore not her first ascent of the mountain,” it said.
The statement did not give details on the record she was trying to break.
“Kalie is a highly respected athlete and a valued member of the worldwide skyrunning community,” it said.
“Our thoughts are with Kalie, her family and everyone close to her at this extremely difficult time. We are hoping for her safe return and are grateful to those involved in the ongoing search.”
Riley Webb, a close friend from McCrystal’s hometown of Squamish, B.C., said he has known her for about five years and described her as an accomplished mountain runner, lawyer and deeply caring friend.
“She was very thoughtful and compassionate. Always there for you. Truly always there for you,” he told Global News.
Webb said McCrystal’s disappearance and the uncertainty surrounding the search have been difficult for those close to her.
“As a friend and someone very close to her, it’s almost unbearable,” he said.
The two began pursuing mountain and trail running around the same time, training and heading into the mountains together.
Webb said McCrystal’s passion and dedication to the sport stood out, as did her desire to champion women in mountain running.
A woman was taken to hospital after being attacked by a bear while hiking in the backcountry near Whistler, B.C., on Friday evening.
A group of three hikers encountered two bears near Conflict Lake in the Callaghan Conservancy at around 5 p.m., the B.C. Conservation Officer Service said in a social media post Saturday afternoon.
One of the bears attacked the woman before disengaging, officials said.
The Conservation Officer Service’s Predator Attack Team, Squamish RCMP and Squamish Search and Rescue responded to the area by helicopter.
The woman received first aid at the scene before she was airlifted to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Conservation officers said an adult male black bear found at the attack site was killed due to safety concerns.
However, officials said they have not determined whether a black bear or grizzly bear was responsible for the attack.
Officers returned to the area Saturday to continue their investigation.
Trail access in the area is now closed, and officials are asking people to stay away while the investigation continues.
RELATED: New Brunswick lawyer in hot water after using generative AI for legal citations.
Quebec’s courts have issued new guidelines restricting judges’ use of generative artificial intelligence, stressing that judging must remain a fundamentally human responsibility.
The guidelines, jointly adopted by the Quebec Court of Appeal, Superior Court, Court of Quebec and the province’s municipal courts, say generative AI can be used for certain supporting tasks but cannot replace judicial reasoning, the assessment of evidence or deliberation.
Judging, they say, must remain the exclusive responsibility of judges.
“Generative AI, however sophisticated, possesses neither judgment nor conscience and is not subject to any form of accountability,” states the 10-page document. “It cannot understand the human, social and legal context specific to each case.”
The move comes months after questions were raised about whether a Quebec judge may have used generative AI in preparing a decision.
La Presse reported in March that a decision contained references to case law that did not exist, raising the possibility that generative AI had been used. The episode helped create a sense of urgency within the judiciary as it worked to establish rules for the technology.
The courts say there is currently no approved, secure institutional generative AI tool available to judges. They also warn that existing tools rely on algorithms whose workings remain largely opaque.
“Judging cannot be reduced to a technical exercise,” the guidelines say. “It is an intrinsically human function, based on deliberation, consideration of context, respect for dignity, the requirement of fairness and the exercise of moral responsibility.”
The courts acknowledge that generative AI can be useful, but say it cannot be used as a source of legal authority or reasoning, to assess evidence or to make decisions.
Judges may use it for limited tasks such as correcting, revising, rephrasing or translating text they have already written, certain administrative work, or locating information within specified sources.
Any such use must remain under human control, and AI-generated material must be independently verified.
The guidelines make clear that judges remain fully responsible for their legal reasoning, the contents of their decisions, and the accuracy of the facts, references, quotations and legal authorities they cite.
“No error can be attributed to the tool used,” the document says. “The use of a generative AI tool does not diminish the judge’s obligation to verify or their full responsibility for the final result.”
The guidelines say AI cannot be used for substantive legal reasoning, analyzing or characterizing facts, assessing evidence or credibility, determining the outcome of a dispute, or drafting those parts of a decision.
“If the use of AI has the effect or purpose of determining the legal outcome, assessing credibility or interpreting disputed facts, interpreting the relevance of facts, or formulating the reasons for a decision, it must not be used,” the guidelines say.
The courts also warn judges about confidentiality risks.
Judges should not provide AI tools with draft judgments, notes about ongoing cases or information protected by law or a court order.
Until an authorized institutional system is available, judges using an AI tool for permitted purposes must also ensure its settings prevent information they enter from being used to train or improve the system.
When in doubt, the guidelines recommend judges refrain from using generative AI.
The guidelines are intended to protect principles including judicial independence, impartiality, fairness, human rights and access to justice, while ensuring confidentiality, security and data protection.
WATCH: A new Centre for Dyslexia is set to open a permanent home in Vancouver, offering support for families and training for educators.
Canada’s first centre dedicated to supporting people with dyslexia is getting a permanent home in Vancouver with a focus on helping families and giving educators tools to support students with learning differences.
Neil Johnston, CEO of the Centre for Dyslexia, said the organization hopes to address gaps that can leave children with dyslexia struggling in the classroom without knowing why.
“About 20 per cent of the population has dyslexia, 80 per cent go undiagnosed,” Johnston told Global News.
Dyslexia affects how the brain processes information and can present challenges with reading and writing, as well as executive functioning and math, Johnston explained.
For children who aren’t diagnosed early, those challenges can also take a toll on their experience at school.
“These kids aren’t having a good school experience. They are in distress. They do need support. They don’t understand why the system isn’t helping them,” Johnston said.
The Vancouver centre will provide direct programs and services to families while also working with teachers and school districts to improve support for students with dyslexia.
Johnston said one of the priorities is identifying struggling students earlier.
While families can pursue a formal diagnosis, he said the process can come with delays and costs.
Screening can offer a quicker way of identifying children who are struggling to read and determining what support they may need.
“The science of reading tells us how kids learn to read best,” Johnston said. “From K to 3, kids learn to read. And from Grade 4 onwards, they’re reading to learn. So we’ve got to catch them early.”
He said teachers are committed to helping their students but may not always receive enough training on dyslexia and other learning differences.
“We have amazing teachers,” Johnston said. “They’re so committed and dedicated to what they do and they’re great at it, but we haven’t set them up for success.”
The centre is already working with school districts and offering programs in person and virtually across British Columbia, with the longer term goal of helping schools develop their own capacity to support dyslexic learners.
Johnston said there has been progress in B.C. in recent years, including greater recognition of dyslexia by the provincial government, but more work remains.
For parents who notice their child struggling at school, Johnston said it is important not to ignore the signs.
“That’s heartbreaking as a parent,” he said. “We’re here to help. So come see us.”
WATCH: A man who had been missing near Squamish, B.C., for six days has been found alive following an extensive multi-agency search.
A man who had been missing near Squamish, B.C., for nearly a week has been found alive, police and search and rescue officials say.
Stanislav Volo, who was reported missing on Aug. 30, was located after an extensive search involving multiple agencies, Sea to Sky RCMP said in a news release.
Police said Volo was taken to hospital with what are believed to be minor injuries.
“It looks like a very good outcome, very strong young man, he’ll be fine,” said Sue Nicholson with Squamish Search and Rescue in an interview with Global News.
Volo walked out on his own and was located on the Indian Arm Forest Service Road, in a remote area behind the mountain range above Squamish.
“We have fantastic news today. Staz has been found,” Tyler Duncan, operations director and search manager with Squamish Search and Rescue, told Global News.
“It has, honestly, in almost 20 years of search and rescue, been one of the most involved searches I’ve ever been involved in,” he said.
Resources were brought in from across B.C., including search and rescue teams from Pemberton to Mission and teams from Vancouver Island.
Duncan said crews conducted operations throughout the night and used tools including infrared and cellphone detection technology in their efforts to find Volo.
RCMP said its police dog services, Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team and Air Services were involved in the search, along with Squamish Search and Rescue and the Sea to Sky Gondola team.
“A heartfelt thank you to every SAR team, first responder, volunteers and everyone else who played a part in the search — and to everyone who shared, supported, and kept hope,” a social media post from the Squamish Search and Rescue team said.
Police said no further information would be released out of respect for Volo’s privacy.
Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Tommy Stevens (centre) is embraced by Daniel Wiebe (87) after scoring a touchdown against the Toronto Argonauts during second half CFL football action in Regina on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kayle Neis
KAN
REGINA – A tight race in the CFL’s West Division has made Sunday’s Labour Day Classic even more important as the Saskatchewan Roughriders host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sunday.
The longtime rivals are caught in a highly competitive division with all five teams separated by just six points, with the Riders and Bombers second and third, behind Edmonton. It’s been said that the CFL season doesn’t get serious until Labour Day weekend arrives but given the logjam in the standings, the pressure has arrived early for the teams out West.
Head coach Corey Mace acknowledged the tight race but didn’t commit to the Riders having to play their best games for the remainder of the regular-season schedule.
“I don’t know if it’s more of an issue,” Mace said. “I think regardless of the records or the standings, we’re just always trying to (be our best) anyway. But certainly, I think that the situation the West Division’s in right now — every game is crucial, whether it’s a Western opponent or not, we’re going to go toe to toe, and on Labour Day, this is setting up to be a great game.”
The Riders have had a consistent mantra all season: “Let’s go 1-0 this week.” Quarterback Trevor Harris says that mindset hasn’t changed and that every game is crucial.
“It’s our job to win this game, this is the most important game of the year. Last week against Toronto during that week, it was the most important game of the year,” he said. “So for us, the urgency is up. We’re coming off a two-game stretch where we didn’t play our best football, so we’ve got to bear down and make sure we’re playing our best football.
“That’s what I focused on, making sure we have great energy, execution and being in attack mode each and every day of practice.”
Harris, though, has a simple formula for the Riders to win Sunday’s game.
“By being ourselves, not anything new. They’re a good football team. They have been for quite a long time,” he said. “They’ve been the class of the league for quite a while, and they have our respect, and I’m sure we have theirs. It’ll be a fun matchup but it’s going to be 60 minutes of violent football, and it’s what we look forward to.”
The rivalry is given additional prominence with Labour Day kicking off a home-and-home series. After the Bombers swept the Labour Day Classic and the Banjo Bowl in 2024, the Riders did the same in 2025.
All four games were one-score contests with the Bombers winning 35-33 and 26-21 and the Riders earning 34-30 and 21-13 victories.
Mace expects the status quo for this season’s series.
“I think just speaks, at least in the last handful of years in the West, these two teams have been really good teams and I don’t expect that to change,” he said. “We’ve got crazy respect for this team and what they’ve been able to do in the past, and even leading up to where they are at now.
“And obviously, my respect for (Mike O’Shea) and his coaching staff. We talk about it all the time, play to the echo of the very last whistle whenever the heck that is.”
ON A HEATER: Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros had his best game of the season on Aug. 28 with 324 passing yards and two touchdowns on 26-of-32 passing in a 44-28 victory over the Montreal Alouettes. Making his 150th career start, Collaros improved his career record to 93-57, including 59-25 with the Bombers.
QUITE THE COMEBACK: The Riders overcame a 15-point deficit in a 28-24 victory over the Toronto Argonauts last Saturday. It was Saskatchewan’s largest comeback victory since an 18-17 win over the Ottawa Redblacks on Sept. 29, 2017, in a game where they trailed 17-0.
CLOSING IN ON A MILESTONE: Riders receiver KeeSean Johnson enters Sunday’s game just 10 yards short of 1,000 yards for the season. Johnson is third in the league in receiving yards after totalling 1,159 yards on 86 receptions in 2025. In last week’s victory over the Argos, Johnson had 10 catches for 146 yards and one touchdown.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2026.
The Okanagan Correctional Centre opened in 2016. It cost $200 million to build.
Global News
Okanagan mayors and regional leaders, including First Nations, are pressing the B.C. government to turn unused space at the Okanagan Correctional Centre in Oliver into a mandatory and secure care facility.
A handful of leaders gathered outside the correctional centre Friday, renewing calls on the provincial government to take action as communities across the region continue to grapple with the ongoing drug, mental health and social disorder crises.
“The need continues to grow on a daily basis. What is missing is action,” said Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas.
Penticton Mayor Julius Bloomfield said communities need to focus on getting people the help they need.
“Let’s start helping the people that need help,” Bloomfield said. “Let’s do it with compassion because leaving people on the streets is not compassionate.”
The mayors are specifically pointing to unused capacity at the Oliver facility as a potential location for mandatory care.
Martin Johansen, the mayor of Oliver, said he understands the centre is operating at less than half capacity.
“It’s not anywhere near the capacity it could be,” Johansen said.
The Okanagan Correctional Centre has 401 cells.
The Ministry of Public Safety says the number of inmates varies, but the facility had an average daily inmate count of approximately 200 last year.
The calls come amid growing pressure on the province to address the complex intersection of addiction, mental health and public safety.
Bloomfield warned that continued inaction could have serious consequences.
“People are going to die,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot more suffering and there’s going to be a lot more unrest for the general public.”
While the mayors see the correctional centre as a potential solution, the province says converting part of the facility into a mandatory care site requires a lot more than just a change in use of space.
“It’s not about simply holding people,” said Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s health minister. “It’s about having infrastructure that helps enable the care that we need.”
He also said health-care professionals would need to be available at the site to provide the necessary support services.
The push will continue next week at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, where municipal leaders from across the province will meet with provincial ministers.
For the Okanagan mayors, the convention provides another opportunity to put the proposed use of the Oliver correctional centre directly in front of provincial decision-makers.
“I believe this is a viable solution,” Johansen said.
WATCH: U.S. tariffs are pushing some Canadian wool producers away from American customers and suppliers as the industry looks to expand processing and supply chains at home.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs have led to a tangle of red tape and extra expenses for Canadian wool producers and hobbyists, and some are walking away from their U.S. customers altogether.
Judy Enright Smith, who owns the Wabi Sabi yarn shop in Ottawa, said she’s running out of patience. The last time her American supplier visited, she wore an “Elbows Up” T-shirt.
“At first, it was business,” she said. “Now, it’s personal.”
The U.S. has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on greasy wool imports and some finished wool products, affecting Canadian wool producers who ship their product south to be scoured.
Greasy wool is the raw, unwashed product after a sheep is shorn. It still contains strands of hay, bugs and other bits of barnyard, as well as lanolin — an oily substance produced by sheep. The lanolin is extracted and can be used in cosmetics and other products, while the wool is cleaned and processed.
Canada lacks the same level of industrial processing as the U.S. and other countries, meaning Canadian producers often rely on foreign mills and other facilities to transform greasy wool into yarn and other products. Domestic production is mostly mid-sized or artisanal.
More and more Canadian producers are shipping their raw wool to China and the Czech Republic to evade U.S. tariffs and trade tensions. The chair of the Canadian Wool Council calls it an unfortunate rupture in a long-standing trading relationship at a time when wool prices are on the rise.
“Just as that’s happening, our biggest single market — the U.S. — is kind of closed to us now,” said Matthew Rowe.
“If you’re relying on cross-border supply chains to get something produced, it just doesn’t make economic sense anymore with these tariffs.”
An Angora goat stands on a wooden box as sheep feed in an adjacent pen in a barn at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum in Ottawa, on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Enright Smith said it no longer makes moral sense for her to stock U.S. labels in her store, despite their popularity with some of her customers. She said she’s looking to Europe to help fill the gap and is trying to find more wool products from Canada.
She said her American supplier sent a message to its Canadian clients at the start of the trade war telling them they would be “hurting the little guy” if they ceased doing business with the company because they’re frustrated with Trump.
Enright Smith said she read that argument as a self-serving attempt to blame Canadians for any commercial damage caused by Trump’s blunt-force campaign to change the trading relationship.
She said that this year, when her American supplier reaches out to make a sale, she’s going to say no.
“I don’t mind losing American customers because they basically voted for the guy,” she said of Trump.
FILE — President Donald Trump speaks with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, right, at a working lunch with leaders of G7 and the Middle East in Evian-les-Bains, France, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP, File)
One Canadian mill is shielded from the brunt of U.S. tariffs because it’s one of the few that process wool entirely in Canada.
New Brunswick’s Briggs and Little, which first opened in 1857, buys its wool from a co-operative in Carleton Place, Ont., and manufactures its products on-site, limiting the effects of U.S. tariffs.
But the oldest operating Canadian mill is not entirely untouched by Trump’s tariff agenda. Office manager Leah Little said the mill uses some U.S.-made parts and materials subject to tariffs.
“We do hope this mess is resolved before we need to replace any of our machinery parts that are not available in Canada,” she said.
Rowe said Briggs and Little is more the exception than the rule for Canadian wool and yarn producers — and a “great option” for knitters looking to buy local.
Shepherd and wool mill owner Anna Hunter of Long Way Homestead in Ste. Genevieve, Man., has been thinking about the Canadian wool industry for some time — and how to reimagine it.
Hunter, author of The True Cost of Wool, stopped shipping to the U.S. last year when Trump cancelled the de minimis exemption for imports, which had allowed shipments under US$800 to be accepted duty and tariff free.
It was just the latest blow to Canadian yarn producers still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption of global supply chains, Hunter said.
“All of a sudden, Canadian wool wasn’t moving anywhere than the United States. It was sitting in warehouses and because there was no resilience in how we sold, or where we sold our wool, there was no market,” she said.
“When I saw that wool was again included on this extra 50 per cent tariff list, I thought, ‘How many more hits will Canadian wool have to take before we start talking about creating a new system?'”
A North Country Cheviot sheep is seen in a barn at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum in Ottawa, on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
One challenge facing the Canadian industry is the need to ramp up mill capacity.
Hunter currently processes some 5,000 pounds of wool a year, which she said is a fraction of the wool she collects from her sheep.
She said she envisions a new domestic wool industry based on decentralized regional processing facilities built to handle different varieties of wool and support a more robust domestic textile industry.
Hunter said decoupling Canadian wool from the United States will require government and consumers to stop thinking of wool as just a byproduct of the sheep industry, and to start thinking of it as a commodity worth investment on its own.
She said Canadian knitters also have to get into the habit of checking the label and buying local.
“We’re going to have to really wrestle with how our clothing system has become completely disconnected from agriculture and from our own economy,” she said.
That’s the conundrum facing much of the North American economy now: decades of deepening integration can’t be easily unwound.
“For those of us who are deeply passionate about the sheep industry and about Canadian wool, it does matter,” Hunter said. “And we do need to reckon with it — not just because of this madness coming out of the White House, but because we want to see a future with Canadian wool thriving and being an important part of our agricultural commodities and a part of our textile industry.”
Rowe said if the tariff dispute isn’t resolved soon, it’s going to be a particularly difficult fall for producers as shoppers look to spruce up their winter wardrobes. Producers can make a year’s worth of profit from a single fall season.
Rowe said his organization is trying to shore up Canadian production by advocating for expanded domestic mill capacity and new supply chains.
But untangling ties between the Canadian and U.S. wool industries forged over generations is “almost jarring” to do, he said.
“We don’t want all our wool in one bag, to modify the expression,” Rowe said.
“We need to spread around our opportunities, but I think that doesn’t lessen the hurt, and even the sense of betrayal, that many of the people in our value chain are feeling.”
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