Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic was released on personal recognizance bail Tuesday after pleading not guilty to assaulting his wife.
According to a Boston Police Department report, Lucic appeared intoxicated when officers arrived at his North End apartment early Saturday after his wife reported that he tried to choke her. Brittany Lucic told the responding officers her husband had pulled her hair but said he did not try to strangle her. She declined an offer of medical treatment.
Milan Lucic, a member of the Bruins 2011 Stanley Cup championship team, was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery on a family member, which carries a maximum penalty of 2 1/2 years in prison.
The Vancouver native did not speak at his arraignment Tuesday morning. A plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf, and a pre-trial hearing was set for Jan. 19. As condition of his bail, Lucic was prohibited from abusing the alleged victim and from consuming alcohol.
After being arraigned on a domestic violence charge, @NHLBruins winger Milan Lucic leaves out a back door of the courthouse and refuses comment to @7Newspic.twitter.com/Z89WNsTiEa
The judge granted a motion from Lucic’s attorney that he be allowed to attend the next hearing by video call.
Lucic’s agent did not reply to an email seeking comment over the weekend, and did not respond to a text message seeking comment Monday.
The six-foot-three, 236-pound Vancouver native has not played since Oct. 21 because of injury. He has two assists in four games this season.
The Bruins said Saturday that Lucic was taking an indefinite leave of absence from the team. Head coach Jim Montgomery and captain Brad Marchand said they would provide Lucic’s family any support necessary but declined to otherwise comment on the arrest.
With rising food and housing costs dominating the political agenda, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is expected to deliver a fall economic statement Tuesday that will spur housing construction and help Canadians facing affordability challenges. Here’s how to watch and listen to CBC’s budget coverage:
Special begins at 4 p.m. ET on CBC News Network, CBC Explore, CBC.ca and CBC Radio
CBC News ·
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland makes her way to a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill, Tuesday, November 21, 2023 in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
With rising food and housing costs dominating the political agenda, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is expected to deliver a fall economic statement Tuesday that will spur housing construction and help Canadians facing affordability challenges.
Here’s how to watch and listen to CBC’s budget coverage:
Starting at 4 p.m. ET, the special will be hosted by CBCÂ Chief Political Correspondent Rosemary Barton and Power & Politics host David Cochrane on CBC News Network, CBC News Explore and on CBC.ca.
Also starting at 4 p.m., CBC.ca will be livestreaming Freeland’s speech to the House of Commons along with opposition leaders’ responses.Â
Listeners can tune in to CBC Radio’s special beginning at 4 p.m., which will be hosted by World at Six host Susan Bonner and host of CBC Radio’s The House, Catherine Cullen.
With rising food and housing costs dominating the political agenda, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is expected to deliver a fall economic statement Tuesday that will spur housing construction and help Canadians facing affordability challenges. Here’s how to watch and listen to CBC’s budget coverage:
Special begins at 4 p.m. ET on CBC News Network, CBC Explore, CBC.ca and CBC Radio
CBC News ·
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland makes her way to a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill, Tuesday, November 21, 2023 in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
With rising food and housing costs dominating the political agenda, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is expected to deliver a fall economic statement Tuesday that will spur housing construction and help Canadians facing affordability challenges.
Here’s how to watch and listen to CBC’s budget coverage:
Starting at 4 p.m. ET, the special will be hosted by CBCÂ Chief Political Correspondent Rosemary Barton and Power & Politics host David Cochrane on CBC News Network, CBC News Explore and on CBC.ca.
Also starting at 4 p.m., CBC.ca will be livestreaming Freeland’s speech to the House of Commons along with opposition leaders’ responses.Â
Listeners can tune in to CBC Radio’s special beginning at 4 p.m., which will be hosted by World at Six host Susan Bonner and host of CBC Radio’s The House, Catherine Cullen.
Canada’s consumer price index rose by 3.1 per cent in the year up to October, down from 3.8 per cent the previous month but in line with what economists were expecting.
Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that the biggest reason for the deceleration in the cost of living was a drop in the cost of gasoline, which declined by 6.4 per cent during the month of October alone, and is down by 7.8 per cent compared to where prices were a year ago.
If gasoline is stripped out of the numbers, the inflation rate would have been 3.6 per cent in October. That’s slightly lower than the 3.7 per cent non-gasoline inflation rate clocked the month before.
Food prices increased at a 5.4 per cent pace over the past year. While that’s still higher than the overall inflation rate, it’s down from the 5.8 per cent annual pace seen in September.
Grocery prices have now decelerated for four months in a row, but as TD Bank economist Leslie Preston noted, consumers can be forgiven for not really feeling any tangible relief at the checkout line.
“Slower growth in prices may be imperceptible to consumers who are still paying more than 20 per cent more for a basket of groceries relative to three years ago — the biggest such increase in 40 years,” she said.
While the pain at the cash register for staples like food and gasoline is getting comparatively better, plenty of other aspects that contribute to the cost of living continue to increase at an eye-watering level.
WATCH | How inflation has this woman working 3 jobs just to keep up:Â
She’s juggling 3 jobs and grad school — and struggling to get out of bed
Featured VideoTwo coffee shop jobs, a third job on the side, and a master’s degree to study for. Shramana Sarkar’s daily life is so overwhelming that she struggles to get out of bed some days. But every day, she finds a way. See Sarkar’s story in Part 3 of our series The Grind, profiling people juggling multiple jobs.
Overall, shelter costs are up by more than six per cent in the past year. That’s about twice the overall inflation rate.
A big reason for that is rent which keeps going up at its fastest pace in years. The data agency says the typical cost of rent went up by 8.2Â per cent in the past year. That’s up from 7.3 per cent in September.
The costs associated with owning are no better, however, with mortgage interest costs up by more than 30 per cent in the past year. And property taxes increased by 4.9 per cent in the past year. That’s up from 3.6 per cent this time last year, and it’s also the biggest one-year increase in property taxes on records dating back to 1992.
If one were to strip mortgage costs out of the numbers, the inflation rate would be 2.2 per cent and if one were to strip out shelter entirely, it would be 1.9 per cent.
Economist Tu Nguyen with consultancy RSM Canada Inc. says the shelter costs are eating a larger and larger chunk of household budgets, leaving less money for everything else and bringing down inflation in the process.
“On a per capita basis, consumer spending has actually dropped,” she said. “Households who get hit with higher mortgage payments find themselves cutting back on discretionary spending.”
She says the data give the Bank of Canada more than enough of an excuse to stop any further rate hikes.
“The CPI report is the latest sign of a cooling economy that should make the Bank of Canada feel comfortable keeping the policy rate unchanged at the December announcement. At this point, the Bank can sit back and let the forces of monetary policy work its way through the economy.”
Are you a permanent resident living in Canada but have lost hope in building a life here? Are you planning on leaving the country? We want to know why. Tell us your story by emailing ask@cbc.ca.
The plot of land is near-empty, but standing on the November-frosted dirt and looking over it, Elaine Arlene Pelletier calls it home. And that’s what her community plans to build, board by board.
Pelletier is an elder from Lucky Man Cree Nation, a Saskatchewan nation that has formally held the land, located about 100 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon, for about 34 years.
There are few indications on the 3,100 hectares of land that it might be home to anyone: an aged community hall, a nearby trailer and a yellow “NO HUNTING NO TRESPASSING” sign.
Now they’ve been joined by what will soon be the community’s first house, its skeleton grafted from the bones of a recently dismantled grain elevator.
“To see these buildings here it’s emotional, because we’ve never had a home — a reserve — before,” Pelletier said. “Now this is our home.”
Pelletier has been living for about 42 years in a small town about an hour’s drive away, but said she would move in an instant if there was somewhere to stay on reserve.
That’s the goal Lucky Man has for Pelletier and the other members. Leadership estimates there are about 120, but expects that number to grow.
See footage of the new house in progress:Â
Sask. First Nation community comes from the bones of a grain elevator
Featured VideoChief Crystal Okemow of Lucky Man Cree Nation gets her first look at a net-zero constructed home on their land made from recycled wood from a grain elevator.
The house is being built with wood carefully collected during the dismantling of two Saskatchewan grain elevators. Its an environmentally friendly alternative to cutting down more trees that reduces the carbon footprint in comparison to typical construction, though the calculations to determine if the build is fully net-zero construction haven’t been completed.
The plan is for the house to have net-zero energy and emissions thanks to well-insulated walls, a heat pump and solar panels.
Lucky Man Cree Nation Chief Crystal Okemow said they chose a net-zero build with climate change in mind. They want to set the stage for the rest of the community, also planned to be net-zero.
“You always think about the generations behind you, coming.”
Once a grain elevator, now a house
ABMT Wood Solutions, one of the companies the First Nation has been working with, dismantles aging, unused grain elevators. Instead of being trucking to garbage dumps, or burned, the valuable century-old wood has become the walls and flooring of Lucky Man’s first house.
“The idea was to reuse this mass timber, which is really strong and it’s in really good shape,” said Ian Loughran, owner of Vereco Smart Green Homes, which oversaw the net-zero design of the building.Â
Loughran referenced the importance of net-zero emission homes, given the federal goal to lower emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050.
WATCH | Company tears down Sask. grain elevators to reuse valuable wood:Â
Sask. company finds new uses for province’s old grain elevators
Featured VideoA Saskatchewan company is on a mission to deconstruct grain elevators and repurpose their wood into construction materials and affordable housing.
The plan is for the 1,450-square-foot home to be finished in March with electric heat and functioning sewer services. Water will have to be trucked in at first.
Lucky Man hasn’t chosen one person or family to occupy the home. Until it is a part of a neighbourhood, it will become a temporary residence for elders, families and guests celebrating at the community hall.
The Lucky Man Cree Nation community hall, with no kitchen or water supply, is one of two buildings on the reserve before construction began on the new home. (Dayne Patterson/CBC)
Chief Okemow said the next goal is about a dozen houses in the next five years, all net zero.
After that, about 40 homes over the next 20 years, along with businesses, roads and permanent water infrastructure.Â
Okemow said she asked members of the community — some across Saskatchewan, some as far as Canada’s east coast — if they would return home if there was a community to stay in. She said most of them are like Pelletier: build it and they will come.
From the dirt, up
Lucky Man’s biggest hurdles are money and policy, according to Okemow.
The community struggled to secure a reserve until its land entitlement was finalized in Treaty 6 territory in 1989.
Okemow said the membership started pushing leadership to finally build a physical community around the time of the pandemic.
Chief Crystal Okemow, right, stands inside the new home being built on Lucky Man Cree Nation, holding a heavy wooden door intended for a security room inside. Gerard Burke, left, CEO of CFN Construction in charge of building the home, was among those talking with her about how the house will look when it’s completed in the spring. (Dayne Patterson/CBC)
With membership numbers so much lower than many other communities, and no one living on the reserve, council has to really battle for money from Indigenous Services Canada, Okemow said.
“Because we’re a small nation, Lucky Man sees a lot of discriminatory policies,” Okemow said.
She said the band’s relationship with Indigenous Services Canada has improved. Yet the dream for a complete community, drawn out in a master plan that Okemow was hesitant to share, is still distant.
This first home was built using money from a recent housing needs assessment, Okemow said. Without much more funding, the plan for the lake- and forest-dotted landscape will remain only a well-documented vision. Okemow is adamant that doesn’t happen. She plans to push for the government to follow its treaty obligations to aid First Nations.
“I’m a little hard-headed, but I like to use that to the advantage of the nation,” she said.
CBC has contacted Indigenous Services Canada for comment, but did not receive a response before publication time.
Okemow is optimistic that Lucky Man Cree Nation will find a way to build its community.
She said it’s important that children grow up in their home First Nation, rather than off-reserve like she did.
“I’ve never lived on Lucky Man,” she said. “It’s much more impactful when you’re living in your own tribe with your family, your relatives. It’s hard to put into words. It’s such a huge impact in your life.”
The plot of land is near-empty, but standing on the November-frosted dirt and looking over it, Elaine Arlene Pelletier calls it home. And that’s what her community plans to build, board by board.
Pelletier is an elder from Lucky Man Cree Nation, a Saskatchewan nation that has formally held the land, located about 100 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon, for about 34 years.
There are few indications on the 3,100 hectares of land that it might be home to anyone: an aged community hall, a nearby trailer and a yellow “NO HUNTING NO TRESPASSING” sign.
Now they’ve been joined by what will soon be the community’s first house, its skeleton grafted from the bones of a recently dismantled grain elevator.
“To see these buildings here it’s emotional, because we’ve never had a home — a reserve — before,” Pelletier said. “Now this is our home.”
Pelletier has been living for about 42 years in a small town about an hour’s drive away, but said she would move in an instant if there was somewhere to stay on reserve.
That’s the goal Lucky Man has for Pelletier and the other members. Leadership estimates there are about 120, but expects that number to grow.
See footage of the new house in progress:Â
Sask. First Nation community comes from the bones of a grain elevator
Featured VideoChief Crystal Okemow of Lucky Man Cree Nation gets her first look at a net-zero constructed home on their land made from recycled wood from a grain elevator.
The house is being built with wood carefully collected during the dismantling of two Saskatchewan grain elevators. Its an environmentally friendly alternative to cutting down more trees that reduces the carbon footprint in comparison to typical construction, though the calculations to determine if the build is fully net-zero construction haven’t been completed.
The plan is for the house to have net-zero energy and emissions thanks to well-insulated walls, a heat pump and solar panels.
Lucky Man Cree Nation Chief Crystal Okemow said they chose a net-zero build with climate change in mind. They want to set the stage for the rest of the community, also planned to be net-zero.
“You always think about the generations behind you, coming.”
Once a grain elevator, now a house
ABMT Wood Solutions, one of the companies the First Nation has been working with, dismantles aging, unused grain elevators. Instead of being trucking to garbage dumps, or burned, the valuable century-old wood has become the walls and flooring of Lucky Man’s first house.
“The idea was to reuse this mass timber, which is really strong and it’s in really good shape,” said Ian Loughran, owner of Vereco Smart Green Homes, which oversaw the net-zero design of the building.Â
Loughran referenced the importance of net-zero emission homes, given the federal goal to lower emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050.
WATCH | Company tears down Sask. grain elevators to reuse valuable wood:Â
Sask. company finds new uses for province’s old grain elevators
Featured VideoA Saskatchewan company is on a mission to deconstruct grain elevators and repurpose their wood into construction materials and affordable housing.
The plan is for the 1,450-square-foot home to be finished in March with electric heat and functioning sewer services. Water will have to be trucked in at first.
Lucky Man hasn’t chosen one person or family to occupy the home. Until it is a part of a neighbourhood, it will become a temporary residence for elders, families and guests celebrating at the community hall.
The Lucky Man Cree Nation community hall, with no kitchen or water supply, is one of two buildings on the reserve before construction began on the new home. (Dayne Patterson/CBC)
Chief Okemow said the next goal is about a dozen houses in the next five years, all net zero.
After that, about 40 homes over the next 20 years, along with businesses, roads and permanent water infrastructure.Â
Okemow said she asked members of the community — some across Saskatchewan, some as far as Canada’s east coast — if they would return home if there was a community to stay in. She said most of them are like Pelletier: build it and they will come.
From the dirt, up
Lucky Man’s biggest hurdles are money and policy, according to Okemow.
The community struggled to secure a reserve until its land entitlement was finalized in Treaty 6 territory in 1989.
Okemow said the membership started pushing leadership to finally build a physical community around the time of the pandemic.
Chief Crystal Okemow, right, stands inside the new home being built on Lucky Man Cree Nation, holding a heavy wooden door intended for a security room inside. Gerard Burke, left, CEO of CFN Construction in charge of building the home, was among those talking with her about how the house will look when it’s completed in the spring. (Dayne Patterson/CBC)
With membership numbers so much lower than many other communities, and no one living on the reserve, council has to really battle for money from Indigenous Services Canada, Okemow said.
“Because we’re a small nation, Lucky Man sees a lot of discriminatory policies,” Okemow said.
She said the band’s relationship with Indigenous Services Canada has improved. Yet the dream for a complete community, drawn out in a master plan that Okemow was hesitant to share, is still distant.
This first home was built using money from a recent housing needs assessment, Okemow said. Without much more funding, the plan for the lake- and forest-dotted landscape will remain only a well-documented vision. Okemow is adamant that doesn’t happen. She plans to push for the government to follow its treaty obligations to aid First Nations.
“I’m a little hard-headed, but I like to use that to the advantage of the nation,” she said.
CBC has contacted Indigenous Services Canada for comment, but did not receive a response before publication time.
Okemow is optimistic that Lucky Man Cree Nation will find a way to build its community.
She said it’s important that children grow up in their home First Nation, rather than off-reserve like she did.
“I’ve never lived on Lucky Man,” she said. “It’s much more impactful when you’re living in your own tribe with your family, your relatives. It’s hard to put into words. It’s such a huge impact in your life.”
Israel and Hamas on Tuesday appeared close to a deal to temporarily halt their devastating six-week war for dozens of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip to be freed in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
But as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his cabinet for a vote, he vowed to resume the Israeli offensive against Hamas as soon as the truce ends.
“We are at war, and we will continue the war,” he said. “We will continue until we achieve all our goals.”
What questions do you have about the war between Israel and Hamas? Send an email to ask@cbc.ca.
The Israeli cabinet was expected to vote on a plan that would halt Israel’s offensive in Gaza for several days in exchange for the release of about 50 of the 240 hostages held by Hamas. Israel has vowed to continue the war until it destroys Hamas’s military capabilities and returns all hostages.
Hamas predicted a Qatari-mediated deal could be reached in “the coming hours.”
WATCH |Â Why is a ceasefire in Gaza so contentious?:Â
Why is a ceasefire in Gaza so contentious? | About That
Featured VideoCalls for a ceasefire in Gaza have been growing internationally since the Israel-Hamas war began. Andrew Chang explains why reaching a formal agreement to stop fighting is such a contentious issue among Western allies.
Netanyahu acknowledged that the cabinet faced a tough decision, but supporting the ceasefire was the right thing to do. Netanyahu appeared to have enough support to pass the measure, despite opposition from some hard-line ministers.
Netanyahu said that during the lull, intelligence efforts will be maintained, allowing the army to prepare for the next stages of battle. He said the battle would continue until, “Gaza will not threaten Israel.”
Details of the expected ceasefire deal were not released. Israeli media reported that an agreement would include a five-day halt in Israel’s offensive in Gaza and the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for some 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Israel’s Channel 12 TV said the first releases would take place Thursday or Friday and continue for several days.
Talks have repeatedly stalled. But even if a deal is reached, it would not mean an end to the war, which erupted on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants stormed across the border into southern Israel and killed at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped some 240 others.
Rising death toll in Gaza
In weeks of Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, two-thirds of them women and minors, and more than 2,700 others are missing and believed to be buried under rubble, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry says it has been unable to update its count since Nov. 11 because of the health sector’s collapse.
Gaza health officials say the toll has risen sharply since, and hospitals continue to report deaths from daily strikes, often dozens at a time.
A wounded Palestinian child sits on a bed at Naser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Tuesday. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)
The Health Ministry in the West Bank last reported a toll of 13,300 but stopped providing its own count Tuesday without giving a reason. Because of that, and because officials there declined to explain in detail how they tracked deaths after Nov. 11, the AP decided to stop reporting its count.
The Health Ministry toll does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants but has not provided evidence for its count.
Talks on hostages
Israel, the United States and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas, have negotiated for weeks over a hostage release that would be paired with a temporary ceasefire and the entry of more aid.
In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday that a deal on releasing some hostages was “very close.”
“We could bring some of these hostages home very soon,” he said at the White House.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari expressed optimism, telling reporters that “we are at the closest point we ever had been in reaching an agreement.” He added that negotiations were at a “critical and final stage.”
Izzat Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said Tuesday that an agreement could be reached “in the coming hours,” in which Hamas would release captives and Israel would release Palestinian prisoners. Hamas’s leader-in-exile, Ismail Haniyeh, also said they were close to a deal.
Israel’s Channel 12 TV, citing anonymous Israeli officials, said a truce could be extended and additional Palestinian prisoners released if there were additional hostages freed.
WATCH | Families of hostages talks to CBC News:Â
Hamas took their daughters, mothers, nieces, nephews
Featured VideoMore than 200 people are still being held hostage by Hamas, all of them with a family desperately waiting for their return. CBC’s Ioanna Roumeliotis spoke to some about what they’re going through and how they’re finding hope in the agonizing uncertainty.
Meanwhile, the armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad announced late on Tuesday the death of one of the Israeli hostages it has held since Oct. 7.
“We previously expressed our willingness to release her for humanitarian reasons, but the enemy was stalling and this led to her death,” Al Quds Brigades said on its Telegram channel.
Fighting around hospitals
Inside Gaza, the front line of the war shifted to the Jabaliya refugee camp, a densely built district of concrete buildings near Gaza City that houses families displaced in the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Israel has bombarded the area for weeks, and the military said Hamas fighters have regrouped there and in other eastern districts after being pushed out of much of Gaza City.
The fighting in Jabaliya also affected two nearby hospitals, trapping hundreds of patients and displaced people sheltering inside. A strike Tuesday hit inside one of the facilities, al-Awda, killing four people, including three doctors, the hospital director told Al-Jazeera TV. The director, Ahmed Mahna, blamed the strike on Israel, a claim that AP could not independently confirm.
Residents of Jabaliya said there was heavy fighting as Israeli forces tried to advance under the cover of airstrikes. “They are facing stiff resistance,” said Hamza Abu Mansour, a university student.
People are seen near the site of Israeli airstrikes at the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday. (Abed Sabah/Reuters)
The Israeli military said strikes hit three tunnel shafts where fighters were hiding and destroyed rocket launchers. Footage released by the military showed Israeli soldiers patrolling on foot as gunfire echoed around them.
It was not possible to independently confirm details of the fighting.
It’s unclear how many Palestinian civilians remain in northern Gaza, but the UNÂ agency for Palestinian refugees estimates that some 160,000 people are still in its shelters there, though it can no longer provide services. Thousands more still shelter in several hospitals in the north even after many fled south in recent weeks.
Most hospitals are no longer operational. The hospital situation in Gaza is “catastrophic,” Michael Ryan, a senior World Health Organization official, said Monday.
With Israeli troops surrounding the Indonesia Hospital, also near Jabaliya, staff had to bury 50 dead in the facility’s courtyard, a senior Health Ministry official in the hospital, Munir al-Boursh, told Al Jazeera TV.
Up to 600 wounded people and some 2,000 displaced Palestinians remain stranded at the hospital, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Dire conditions across Gaza
Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have crowded into the southern section of the Gaza Strip, where Israeli strikes have continued and where the military says it intends to extend its ground invasion. Many are packed into UN-run schools and other facilities across the territory’s south or sleeping on the streets outside, even as winter rains have pelted the coastal enclave in recent days.
There are shortages of food, water and fuel for generators across all of Gaza, which has had no central electricity for over a month.
Strikes overnight crushed residential buildings in the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 20 people, according to hospital officials. Footage from the scene showed the legs of five young boys sticking out from under a collapsed concrete slab of one home.
Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets throughout Gaza, often killing women and children. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
Brazilian international student Fernando Bossoes came to Canada to study journalism. Now in his second year at Humber College’s Bachelor of Journalism program, he chose the Toronto polytechnic partly because the journalism programs offered back home were too “old school” for his liking.
But just a few months after Bossoes began his studies, Humber announced that it would be pausing new admissions to the program in 2023. And while his cohort started with seven students, that number has dwindled to four — including an exchange student who will be leaving next year, he said — after several people dropped out.
“Of course, I was expecting a small class because journalism is not an industry that people are really interested in right now,” said Bossoes, 19.
Humber College is one of six Canadian schools where a journalism program or stream has been shut down or has paused admissions in the last year due to low enrolment. The list includes Loyalist College, Wilfrid Laurier University and Mohawk College in Ontario, plus the University of Regina.
While some of the programs are folding indefinitely, others are being temporarily suspended, with administrators citing a need to reinvent and refresh the curriculum to meet the needs of the digital age.
For example, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary is temporarily pausing admissions for 2024 to its Broadcast News stream in the Radio, Television and Broadcast News program in response to industry changes.
WATCH | J-schools faced with low enrolment change their approach:Â
Journalism programs facing low enrolment hit pause to modernize
Featured VideoSix Canadian journalism programs have been discontinued or paused admissions in the last 12 months due to low enrolment. Students and faculty say changes need to be made to reinvent J-schools for the digital age.
From declining trust and interest in news media to a challenging job market that has impacted local newspapers and legacy newsrooms alike, experts say that schools need to update their programs to attract prospective journalists.
“We all know that a lot of people today — young people — they don’t watch the news, they don’t turn [on] the TV to watch the news,” said Bossoes. “They go on social media, they go on TikTok, they go on Instagram to see what’s happening in the world.”
More emphasis on independent journalism
Those news habits were reflected in the 2023 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, which found that — while the public is uneasy about the spread of misinformation and algorithms — a reliance on video platforms like TikTok has continued to grow, especially among those under 25.
“While mainstream journalists often lead conversations around news in Twitter and Facebook, they struggle to get attention on newer networks like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, where personalities, influencers and ordinary people are often more prominent, even when it comes to conversations around news,” the report said.
LISTEN | CBC education producer Nazima Walji on J-school troubles:Â
On The Coast8:12Journalism schools and their troubles
Featured VideoIn the past few years we’ve talked about the closures of local and national media in Canada, as the newspaper and magazine industries falter. Now Journalism schools across the country are pausing or suspending operations. CBC Education Producer Nazima Walji has spoken to advocates and experts about this trend, and brings us that story.
Journalism schools have been wrestling with a changing news media landscape for years in tandem with the rise of misinformation in online spaces. Guillermo Acosta, the dean of the faculty of media and creative arts at Humber College, said that the profession has been affected by “a lot of noise.”
Small cohorts like the one Bossoes is part of don’t lend themselves to debate or to field work, said Acosta. With its Bachelor of Journalism degree on pause, the school is consulting with students, faculty and other players to decide what the future of the program will be.
“There’s evidence of more of an interest in a much more entrepreneurial way to do journalism, more independent journalism,” he said. “So we’re trying to understand what that means and how we can embed that in the education or experience.”
Mohawk College, which announced in June that it would suspend its three-year journalism diploma, did so in part to revamp its course offerings, which several students previously told CBC News needed to be modernized. The school similarly suspended its Broadcast-Radio program for a few years, eventually reintroducing it as the Broadcast-Radio Creative Content program.
But it isn’t all bad news — some of Canada’s largest journalism schools continue to see healthy enrolment.
A spokesperson for Concordia University told CBC News that its J-school programs are growing and that the school recently introduced a science journalism minor. Graduate programs have increased by 45 per cent since 2016, while enrolment remains steadily full at the undergraduate level.
Ravindra Mohabeer, chair of the School of Journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University, wrote in a response to CBC News that the school’s enrolment has increased year over year for the last three years, from 150 first-year students in 2021 to 170 students this year before attrition.
He said the school is always revising its curriculum, and that there are no plans to pause its Bachelor of Journalism or Master of Journalism programs.
A statement from Carleton University did not share enrolment numbers, but said that the journalism school is “in a constant state of renewal to meet the needs of today’s modern journalist.”
Students make their way around the Toronto Metropolitan University campus in Toronto on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. The university’s School of Journalism has seen a year-over-year increase in enrolment, according to its chair Ravindra Mohabeer. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Paradigm shift needed, says UBC prof
Not everyone agrees what those needs are. While some of the paused programs said they are updating to incorporate more multimedia courses, one Canadian professor suggests that tech isn’t the issue.
Instead, there needs to be a paradigm shift in “how we are approaching journalism as a field and what kind of journalists [we] want to train for the future of Canada,” said Saranaz Barforoush, an assistant professor of teaching at the University of British Columbia’s School of Journalism, Writing and Media.
That might mean introducing more community-focused courses, emphasizing solutions-based journalism, or introducing courses that teach students how to cover racism or marginalized communities.
LISTEN |Â A discussion of how Canadian media represents racialized people:Â
Barforoush said that “if more students and more people see themselves on the news — people that look like them, that represent them, that sound like them — then there may be a little bit more enthusiasm to get into the field and try to invoke positive change.”
Saranaz Barforoush, an assistant professor of teaching at the University of British Columbia’s School of Journalism, Writing and Media, said journalism schools can introduce more community-focused courses to appeal to a new generation of students. (UBC School of Journalism)
A ‘bulwark’ against misinformation
That most of the journalism program closures are happening in mid-sized or small markets could further erode the health of local journalism, Barforoush said.
“If all the journalism schools and trainees are going to focus on big cities then that usually means that the people that come in are either from those big cities or those who can afford to live in these big cities,” she said.
Tom McIntosh, an associate dean of arts at the University of Regina, said that well-trained journalists are a bulwark against misinformation. The university’s journalism school recently paused admissions to update its program for the digital age. (Nazima Walji/CBC)
The University of Regina recently paused admissions to its journalism school. Tom McIntosh, an associate dean of arts, said the program’s graduates are an important part of the city and province’s media ecosystem, and that their first jobs are often in local Saskatchewan media.
Declining enrolment in the graduate program, coupled with issues around “the capacity of faculty to deliver the program as it had been structured” contributed to the decision to pause it, McIntosh said. In the meantime, the school is developing an undergraduate journalism program that could begin accepting students next fall.
“It was important that we give … the school a chance to reinvent itself so that we can continue to be a source of well-trained new journalists for the Saskatchewan market,” he explained.
“We are in an ongoing battle over misinformation that is out there, whether it’s on social media or various other websites and the like,” said McIntosh. “A bulwark against that [is] a continual creation of well-trained professional journalists.”
Brazilian international student Fernando Bossoes came to Canada to study journalism. Now in his second year at Humber College’s Bachelor of Journalism program, he chose the Toronto polytechnic partly because the journalism programs offered back home were too “old school” for his liking.
But just a few months after Bossoes began his studies, Humber announced that it would be pausing new admissions to the program in 2023. And while his cohort started with seven students, that number has dwindled to four — including an exchange student who will be leaving next year, he said — after several people dropped out.
“Of course, I was expecting a small class because journalism is not an industry that people are really interested in right now,” said Bossoes, 19.
Humber College is one of six Canadian schools where a journalism program or stream has been shut down or has paused admissions in the last year due to low enrolment. The list includes Loyalist College, Wilfrid Laurier University and Mohawk College in Ontario, plus the University of Regina.
While some of the programs are folding indefinitely, others are being temporarily suspended, with administrators citing a need to reinvent and refresh the curriculum to meet the needs of the digital age.
For example, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary is temporarily pausing admissions for 2024 to its Broadcast News stream in the Radio, Television and Broadcast News program in response to industry changes.
WATCH | J-schools faced with low enrolment change their approach:Â
Journalism programs facing low enrolment hit pause to modernize
Featured VideoSix Canadian journalism programs have been discontinued or paused admissions in the last 12 months due to low enrolment. Students and faculty say changes need to be made to reinvent J-schools for the digital age.
From declining trust and interest in news media to a challenging job market that has impacted local newspapers and legacy newsrooms alike, experts say that schools need to update their programs to attract prospective journalists.
“We all know that a lot of people today — young people — they don’t watch the news, they don’t turn [on] the TV to watch the news,” said Bossoes. “They go on social media, they go on TikTok, they go on Instagram to see what’s happening in the world.”
More emphasis on independent journalism
Those news habits were reflected in the 2023 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, which found that — while the public is uneasy about the spread of misinformation and algorithms — a reliance on video platforms like TikTok has continued to grow, especially among those under 25.
“While mainstream journalists often lead conversations around news in Twitter and Facebook, they struggle to get attention on newer networks like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, where personalities, influencers and ordinary people are often more prominent, even when it comes to conversations around news,” the report said.
LISTEN | CBC education producer Nazima Walji on J-school troubles:Â
On The Coast8:12Journalism schools and their troubles
Featured VideoIn the past few years we’ve talked about the closures of local and national media in Canada, as the newspaper and magazine industries falter. Now Journalism schools across the country are pausing or suspending operations. CBC Education Producer Nazima Walji has spoken to advocates and experts about this trend, and brings us that story.
Journalism schools have been wrestling with a changing news media landscape for years in tandem with the rise of misinformation in online spaces. Guillermo Acosta, the dean of the faculty of media and creative arts at Humber College, said that the profession has been affected by “a lot of noise.”
Small cohorts like the one Bossoes is part of don’t lend themselves to debate or to field work, said Acosta. With its Bachelor of Journalism degree on pause, the school is consulting with students, faculty and other players to decide what the future of the program will be.
“There’s evidence of more of an interest in a much more entrepreneurial way to do journalism, more independent journalism,” he said. “So we’re trying to understand what that means and how we can embed that in the education or experience.”
Mohawk College, which announced in June that it would suspend its three-year journalism diploma, did so in part to revamp its course offerings, which several students previously told CBC News needed to be modernized. The school similarly suspended its Broadcast-Radio program for a few years, eventually reintroducing it as the Broadcast-Radio Creative Content program.
But it isn’t all bad news — some of Canada’s largest journalism schools continue to see healthy enrolment.
A spokesperson for Concordia University told CBC News that its J-school programs are growing and that the school recently introduced a science journalism minor. Graduate programs have increased by 45 per cent since 2016, while enrolment remains steadily full at the undergraduate level.
Ravindra Mohabeer, chair of the School of Journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University, wrote in a response to CBC News that the school’s enrolment has increased year over year for the last three years, from 150 first-year students in 2021 to 170 students this year before attrition.
He said the school is always revising its curriculum, and that there are no plans to pause its Bachelor of Journalism or Master of Journalism programs.
A statement from Carleton University did not share enrolment numbers, but said that the journalism school is “in a constant state of renewal to meet the needs of today’s modern journalist.”
Students make their way around the Toronto Metropolitan University campus in Toronto on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. The university’s School of Journalism has seen a year-over-year increase in enrolment, according to its chair Ravindra Mohabeer. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Paradigm shift needed, says UBC prof
Not everyone agrees what those needs are. While some of the paused programs said they are updating to incorporate more multimedia courses, one Canadian professor suggests that tech isn’t the issue.
Instead, there needs to be a paradigm shift in “how we are approaching journalism as a field and what kind of journalists [we] want to train for the future of Canada,” said Saranaz Barforoush, an assistant professor of teaching at the University of British Columbia’s School of Journalism, Writing and Media.
That might mean introducing more community-focused courses, emphasizing solutions-based journalism, or introducing courses that teach students how to cover racism or marginalized communities.
LISTEN |Â A discussion of how Canadian media represents racialized people:Â
Barforoush said that “if more students and more people see themselves on the news — people that look like them, that represent them, that sound like them — then there may be a little bit more enthusiasm to get into the field and try to invoke positive change.”
Saranaz Barforoush, an assistant professor of teaching at the University of British Columbia’s School of Journalism, Writing and Media, said journalism schools can introduce more community-focused courses to appeal to a new generation of students. (UBC School of Journalism)
A ‘bulwark’ against misinformation
That most of the journalism program closures are happening in mid-sized or small markets could further erode the health of local journalism, Barforoush said.
“If all the journalism schools and trainees are going to focus on big cities then that usually means that the people that come in are either from those big cities or those who can afford to live in these big cities,” she said.
Tom McIntosh, an associate dean of arts at the University of Regina, said that well-trained journalists are a bulwark against misinformation. The university’s journalism school recently paused admissions to update its program for the digital age. (Nazima Walji/CBC)
The University of Regina recently paused admissions to its journalism school. Tom McIntosh, an associate dean of arts, said the program’s graduates are an important part of the city and province’s media ecosystem, and that their first jobs are often in local Saskatchewan media.
Declining enrolment in the graduate program, coupled with issues around “the capacity of faculty to deliver the program as it had been structured” contributed to the decision to pause it, McIntosh said. In the meantime, the school is developing an undergraduate journalism program that could begin accepting students next fall.
“It was important that we give … the school a chance to reinvent itself so that we can continue to be a source of well-trained new journalists for the Saskatchewan market,” he explained.
“We are in an ongoing battle over misinformation that is out there, whether it’s on social media or various other websites and the like,” said McIntosh. “A bulwark against that [is] a continual creation of well-trained professional journalists.”
Michael MacKay told police officers that his wife Cindy probably died by suicide, but the truth is he served her a lethal dose of poison concealed in a mug of Gatorade.
Cindy fell severely ill at her rural home on Feb. 7, 2020, and died in the hospital a few days later. Her husband Michael was charged with first-degree murder more than a year after her death, although he repeatedly told police he was not to blame.Â
Now, the story of what Michael actually did to Cindy has come out.
Michael pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Monday at the Court of King’s Bench in Battleford, Sask.
“It has been nearly four years since Cindy was murdered and today we finally got some justice. The terrible things [Michael] did to her are finally being told,” said Cindy’s brother, Tyler Mack, after the hearing.
“He has told many lies to many people about what happened to Cindy, so it is a great relief to all of us that the record is finally being set straight.”Â
Cindy MacKay’s relatives said she was full of love for her children and wanted to create a perfect life for them. CBC has blurred the children’s faces to protect their identities. (Submitted by Tyler Mack)
There was no trial because of Michael’s guilty plea, but details of what happened were revealed in an agreed statement of facts.
Cindy and Michael got married in 2005 after meeting at a Saskatoon church. The couple had three children and in 2015 they moved to Cindy’s family farm, where she had grown up.Â
Cindy continued to work as a registered nurse after they settled on the farm, until her youngest daughter suffered a “freak accident.” After that, she became a full-time caregiver and homemaker while Michael handled the cattle operation on the farm.
Ominous messages before murder
While they seemed like a typical small-town family from the outside, investigators found that Michael had been foreshadowing Cindy’s fate to some of his female acquaintances.
In December 2019, Michael told a close female friend he would need a place to “lie low” come February 2020.
A few months before Cindy died, Michael started having sex with a woman he met on a “hookup site.” On Feb. 6, 2020, the woman texted him inquiring about Cindy’s health.
He responded saying “goodbye will likely be in the next few days.”
‘We finally got some justice’: Brother of woman who was fatally poisoned at her farmhouse says she was a devoted mother
Featured VideoCindy MacKay, 38, was killed in 2020. MacKay’s husband Michael pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, admitting to poisoning her at their farmhouse. In several victim impact statements, Cindy’s family members expressed intense anguish and anger over the loss of their loved one. They say she was a devoted mother to three children, who loved her kids, her animals and her community.
On the morning of Feb. 7, 2020, Cindy was feeling unwell so Michael took two of the kids to school. When he returned home, he grabbed a mug from the pantry and mixed Cindy a drink from a powdered Gatorade container. He added “an unmeasured but lethal amount of strychnine.”
The poison had been on the farm because Cindy’s parents used it for pests. Doctors say it is a very painful way to die. Â
Shortly after downing the laced drink, Cindy went into severe medical distress and Michael made frantic, emotional calls to 911. Their youngest daughter was told to wait outside while Cindy screamed in pain and arched her back as her muscles contracted.
She was taken to the hospital in Battleford, then airlifted to a hospital in Saskatoon, but never recovered. She was taken off life-support on Feb. 12, 2020.Â
Cindy MacKay loved to travel and she loved animals. Her brother said she was known for getting too attached to foster cats and taking them in as her own. (Submitted by Tyler Mack)
Hospital staff called the police, saying the death seemed suspicious. Michael suggested to police that it may have been suicide.
According to Oryn Holm, senior Crown prosecutor, murder by strychnine is extremely rare.
There was no direct evidence, like eyewitness testimony, but the Crown developed its theory based on a series of circumstances that were suspicious, ultimately charging Michael with first-degree murder.
He pleaded to the lesser offence of second-degree murder.Â
Michael MacKay spoke briefly in court.Â
“I acknowledge all of my many failings, as a husband, as a father, and I just want the court to know that I am truly sorry.”
Justice M.L. Dovell accepted a joint sentencing submission from the defence and Crown, ordering a sentence of life in prison, with eligibility to apply for parole in 10 years.
“Ten years isn’t even close to enough time to repay what he has taken from us. He should be in prison for the rest of his life,” said Mack, Cindy’s brother.
Cindy MacKay was a devoted, loving mother to her three girls. CBC has blurred their faces to protect their identities. (Submitted by Tyler Mack)
The tragedy has deeply affected Cindy’s loved ones and their community.
On Monday, dozens of people attended the court hearing to show support for Cindy and her family — so many that several had to listen from the hallway and others sat in the jurors box. Many were dressed in red, Cindy’s favourite colour. Â
“Cindy was a truly great person and a wonderful mother to her three children. She was kind and compassionate. She loved animals and adopted as many as she could. She was well liked in the community,” said Mack.Â
