Editor’s Note: Reporter Ed Smith is a former member of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority board who joined in 2019, and as a private citizen participated in public efforts to hold David Barrick accountable, before Smith joined The Pointer as an investigative reporter covering Niagara Region.  How does David Barrick continue to find work? Among […]

This year, Ottawa parents Crystal Mask and Garrett Hansen had to have an unsettling conversation with their two kids as they went back to school: “do not drink from the water fountains”. “It was hard,” Mask told The Pointer. “They’re four and five, they see their friends doing it, they think it’s okay.”  In March, […]

With students back in classrooms, Peel Region is urging parents to update children’s vaccination records as officials work to restore pre-pandemic immunization levels. On Sept.16, the region issued a release notifying community members that Peel Public Health will review the vaccination records of roughly 27,500 students, focusing on kindergarten through Grade 3, and Grades 11 […]

The Community Energy Association has recognized the City of New Westminster’s “people-centred” approach to dealing with extreme heat. At this year’s Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention in Vancouver, the Community Energy Association presented New Westminster with a Climate and Energy Action Award for its response to the threat extreme heat events pose to residents’ […]

NIPIGON — Some patient services may be affected as the general hospital in Nipigon responds to what it describes as a “cyber security incident.” An incident involving ransomware affected information technology systems, Nipigon District Memorial Hospital stated in a post on social media. Ransomware is malicious software that locks devices or encrypts files until a […]

When Kristel Fleuren-Hunter was growing up in Antigonish, she remembers the bookmobile – a library on wheels – coming to the school and her and the other children picking out books for the classroom. As she got older, she borrowed Nancy Drew books from her small local library. Trecia Schell remembers singing “skinnamarinky dinky dink” […]

With millions of Canadian children and youth returning to school, public health officials are urging families to get their shots for vaccine-preventable illnesses, including COVID, RSV, flu and measles. Besides seasonal vaccines, experts stress Canadians need to stay up to date on their routine shots as well. Canada lost its official measles elimination status last […]

In July, the University of Saskatchewan received an access to information (ATI) request to release recent purchasing records, which it deemed “frivolous” and asked the province’s information and privacy commissioner to dismiss. Commissioner Grace Hession David, however, ruled that the university’s refusal would deny that applicant’s access to information rights, according to a decision published […]

About 74 of New Brunswick’s mayors and deputy mayors were part of a new training program hosted by the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick (UMNB) — called Mayor’s School. President Brittany Merrifield said the organization came up with the idea to help better explain the role of the mayor. “We have to run the […]

Students will learn about everything from emoji etiquette to internet scam artists, as well as the difference between sexting and sextortion, as part of a provincewide overhaul of health class. Manitoba’s new phys-ed and health curriculum pilot puts an emphasis on a child’s online habits and experiences. “It is really good to see online privacy […]

Calgary police have charged two adults and a youth in what they say was an extortion scheme that included threats for money and gunfire at a woman’s home, and they are asking the public to help find a man still wanted in the case.Police say the woman started getting demands for money on March 25 […]

O’Leary Digital Limited (ODL), the company behind the proposed Wonder Valley data centre complex in northern Alberta, is appealing an Aug. 13 court ruling that barred it from blocking a legal challenge by Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation (SLCN). SLCN has called for a judicial review of a water license granted by the government of Alberta […]