Prince Edward Island’s child and youth advocate says the recently released Jenkins report identified some “cracks” in the province’s school system, but he fears it also made some broad conclusions in order to assure the public that students are safe.

The P.E.I. government ordered the third-party review by former provincial chief justice David Jenkins after it was revealed that former substitute teacher Matthew Craswell had sexually touched students. Craswell pleaded guilty to touching students at two separate primary schools — incidents that only came to light during an RCMP investigation into unrelated child pornography charges. 

Jenkins was tasked with examining current education system policies, identifying gaps and recommending changes. His report ultimately concludes that sexual misconduct isn’t rampant in Island schools, and that staff and officials did the best they could given the limited information they had at the time.

“What [Jenkins] examined was really one point, and then said, ‘the system is working reasonably well, there’s no need to amend legislation,” Bernstein said in an interview with CBC News.

“I thought his recommendations were weak because … he didn’t want to move into areas in which he felt he wasn’t entirely competent.”

Spike in calls

Bernstein said Jenkins’s conclusion that schools are safe places for children was not one the former chief justice was qualified to make.

He said there are other types of threats to children, citing that calls to the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate about school-related incidents like bullying are up.

He’s also concerned that Jenkins didn’t speak to children for his report.

“It seems to be more focused on the institutional protectionism,” Bernstein said. “He finds that there are deficits, but then says things are working well.” 

PSB needs ‘funding and staffing’ to prevent sexual misconduct in P.E.I. schools, says Jenkins

A situation akin to that of former substitute teacher Matthew Craswell could play out again if P.E.I.’s Public School Branch does not get more resources. That’s one of the conclusions David Jenkins made in his report on school safety, released this week. CBC’s Nicola MacLeod has more details.

Bernstein said calls to his office related to education spiked from 17 per cent to 33 per cent over the last year. He attributed that jump to a willingness to both people’s increased willingness to report and an increase in incidents.

“When students know that they have rights, that something isn’t normative, they will speak up,” he said. 

Bernstein had declined Jenkins’s invitation to participate in the report, indicating that he reserved the right to conduct his own investigation.

He said speaking to the child and youth advocate is not a substitute for speaking directly to children.

“I just see too many situations where children are speaking to us and … the picture that’s being presented in this report is not consistent with the reality that we see on a day-to-day basis.” 

B.C. property companies controlled by prominent developer Terry Hui are taking the federal government to court, claiming a tax bill of more than $91 million will jeopardize future construction projects if they’re made to pay up after a 12-year audit by the Canada Revenue Agency.

Vancouver-based Adex Securities Ltd., One West Holdings Ltd. and an affiliated numbered B.C. company filed an application in Federal Court earlier this month seeking to halt the minister of national revenue from issuing tax assessments dating from 2007 to 2013.

The application says an audit of the companies began in 2013, examining payments to related corporations based in Luxembourg, looking into potential tax avoidance and so-called “treaty abuse.” 

The transactions at issue involve the routing of interest payments to companies in Luxembourg, but the developers claim they weren’t for tax avoidance purposes.

The companies say in the application they will “suffer irreparable harm” if made to pay the $91-million tax debt, plus interest, claiming they couldn’t have “reasonably planned for a debt of this magnitude” without advance notice from the minister. 

The application says one or two construction projects will be halted if the companies lose $91 million of working capital, but a lawyer for the developers, Justin Kutyan with KPMG Law in Toronto, said the projects have not started yet. 

“There’s no current projects that could be affected by this. It’s only future projects that we’re anticipating,” he said. 

He said there’s been no determination about which future projects could be jeopardized, and said the transactions in the case were similar to a tax structure that’s been upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada. 

The high court in 2021 ruled on a case brought by a company called Alta Energy Luxembourg, which had claimed a tax exemption on a capital gain of more than $380 million under Canada’s treaty with the European country, described in the decision as being “well known as an international tax haven.” 

The court found in Alta’s favour, ruling that Canadian tax authorities couldn’t use anti-tax avoidance rules to “judicially amend or renegotiate a treaty.”

“Canada effectively agreed to give up its right to tax certain entities incorporated in Luxembourg in exchange for the jobs and economic opportunities that the business property exemption would promote,” the court ruled. 

Trying to tax the transaction under what’s known as the general anti-avoidance rule, the court found, wasn’t allowed because federal tax authorities were “seeking to revisit its bargain in order to secure both foreign investments and tax revenues.” 

The Alta case was winding its way through the courts as the audit of the B.C. firms was underway.

The companies also allege in the application that the CRA acted improperly by trying to maximize the amount recovered near the end of the fiscal year to “improve performance metrics” while under threat of federal job cuts. 

The federal government has not filed a response to the application, and court records indicate that a hearing date has yet to be scheduled.

Hui is well-known in B.C. as the CEO of major developer Concord Pacific.

Навіть якщо ви дієте раціонально і зберігаєте свої накопичення в банку, а не під матрацом, все одно вдома у вас є певна кількість готівки, а можливо ще й прикраси. Звісно, ви намагаєтеся їх сховати так, аби злодії їх не знайшли, якщо раптом спробують обчистити ваш дім. Однак, найімовірніше, про усі подібні “хитрі” місця усі злодії світу давно знають.

Як пише Backyard Garden Lover, посилаючись на розповіді колишніх злодіїв, злочинці добре розуміють людські інстинкти і тому знають, які місця слід перевіряти в будинку в першу чергу. Розуміння того, як працюють крадії, – це перший крок до того, щоб перехитрити їх.

Отже ось 13 найбільш очевидних (для злодіїв місць), де не варто ховати ваші гроші та коштовності.

Меблі в спальні

Це найперше місце, яке перевірять нишпорки. Вони за три хвилини перевернуть догори дригом комоди, тумбочки та шафи і знайдуть все, що там сховано між шарами білизни та шкарпеток. На антресолі теж зазирнуть, до речі.

Під матрацом

Класика. Якщо вам не п’ять років, не варто ховати там нічого цінного. Підняти матрац – це швидка та проста дія для злодія.

Шкатулки для ювелірних виробів

Навіть, якщо це замкнена шкатулка, яку не так вже й просто відкрити, вона не захистить коштовності. Грабіжники просто прихоплять її із собою, щоб відкрити чи зламати її вже потім у спокійній обстановці.  

Аптечка

Ваша домашня аптечка, де б вона не зберігалася – ще одне очевидне місце для злодія. 

Домашній кабінет

Багато людей сьогодні працюють дистанційно з дому, тож тримають усе цінне поруч – не лише дорогу електроніку, але й гроші та банківські картки. Тож це місце в домі злодії перевірять одразу після спальні. А може поперед неї.

Морозильник холодильника

Заховати пакет з готівкою між замороженими варениками та шматком сала може здаватися гарним варіантом, але грабіжники знають про цей трюк. Не сподійвайтеся, що злодії не захочуть ритися поміж крижаними продуктами. Насправді, щоб оглянути вміст морозильної камери, навіть якщо вона забита під зав’язку, достатньо швидким рухом скинути все на підлогу.

Банки та пакети з продуктами на кухні

Хоча злодіям справді доведеться перетрусити усі ємності з крупами, цукром та сіллю, щоб знайти вашу заначку на дні пакету з гречкою, повірте, саме це вони і зроблять. 

Всередині побутових приладів чи електроніки

Вважаєте себе розумником, якщо сховали дві зарплати всередині системного блоку свого ПК? Гадаєте, ніхто не стане шукати викрутку і знімати зовнішні панелі? Ну, так. Ніхто панелі не зніматиме. Системник просто прихоплять із собою, бо він цінний сам собою. З міксером чи кавомашиною може бути те саме.

Меблі в дитячій кімнаті

Не сподівайтеся, що злодії поважають дитинство. Так само, як вони перевернули усе в батьківській спальні, вони зазирнуть у кожну шухляду з іграшками і дитячим одягом. Навіть дитячу скарбничку з монетами прихоплять, будьте певні.

Шафа у передпокої

Люди часто ховають цінні речі у кишенях верхнього одягу, що висить у шафі при вході в квартиру чи будинок. Чомусь багатьом здається, що це якийсь зовсім несподіваний варіант. Насправді злочинці обов’язково перевірять кишені та рукави вивішеного одягу.

Гараж

Якщо йдеться про приватний будинок із власним гаражем, там злодії теж перевірять скриньки та шухляди. Дорогі інструменти можуть прихопити із собою. Якщо автомобіль залишити незамкненим у гаражі, бардачок та центральну консоль обшукують на предмет зайвих грошей.

Горище

Це місце майже завжди завалене старим непотребом, тож злодії справді можуть його проігнорувати, особливо, якщо не мають багато часу. Але, якщо у них будуть причини вважати, що там щось сховане, то вони перевернуть і горище.

Вази та кашпо

Декоративні вази та кімнатні горщики для рослин – ще одне класичне місце для зберігання цінностей. Легко покласти скручені в рулон банкноти або невеликий мішечок з коштовностями у велику вазу і посадити згори кактус. Однак злодій не витратить багато часу, аби перевернути усі вази та витрусити з них усе, що там є.

Поради домовласникам: інші цікаві публікації

Як писав УНІАН, німецькі вчені проаналізували економічну ефективність 13 різних систем опалення для приватного будинку. Згідно з результатами, найвигіднішою виявився тепловий насос з повітряним джерелом, що забезпечує найнижчі загальні витрати завдяки ефективному використанню електроенергії та відносно невисокій ціні встановлення.

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Microsoft’s head of gaming, Phil Spencer, is leaving the software maker following a 38-year tenure, as the company’s Xbox business faces increased challenges.

“Last year, Phil Spencer made the decision to retire from the company, and since then we’ve been talking about succession planning,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote in a memo to employees that was published on Friday. “I want to thank Phil for his extraordinary leadership and partnership.”

Spencer’s exit follows the departures of business development chief Chris Young and GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke in 2025. Charlie Bell, who had been Microsoft’s most high-ranking security leader, switched to an individual contributor role earlier this month.

Revenue from video games at Microsoft declined about 10% in the December quarter from a year earlier, a steeper drop than the company expected, while total revenue grew nearly 17%. Microsoft announced an unspecified impairment charge in its gaming business in January.

The company made a $75 billion bet to expand its games business with the 2023 acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and it released Call of Duty titles as a cloud service. But current generation Xbox consoles haven’t been as popular as Sony’s PlayStation or Nintendo’s Switch, and Microsoft has shuttered studios working on new games.

Nadella said in the memo that Spencer, who took charge of Xbox in 2014 after running the company’s gaming studios, nearly tripled Microsoft’s gaming business, in part through acquisitions like Activision Blizzard. Spencer also pushed for Microsoft to take over Minecraft developer Mojang.

“Over 38 years at Microsoft, including 12 years leading Gaming, Phil helped transform what we do and how we do it,” Nadella wrote.

After Nadella became CEO in 2014, Sony was selling more consoles than Microsoft, and investors had floated the idea of spinning out consumer assets such as Xbox. Analyst Rick Sherlund of Nomura estimated that the division could lose more than $1 billion for the year.

“The question is, do we go forward with Xbox?” Spencer said in a 2020 interview with gaming website Shacknews. Spencer said he persuaded Nadella to bring hardware, software and game-development groups into one organization.

Asha Sharma, who joined Microsoft in 2024 from Instacart, will take over for Spencer, becoming CEO of gaming and reporting to Nadella. Until now, she has been president of product in Microsoft’s Core AI business, which former Meta executive Jay Parikh runs. Before arriving at Instacart in 2021 and serving as operating chief, Sharma spent four years as a vice president of product and engineering at Meta and two years in marketing at Microsoft.

“We will recommit to our core Xbox fans and players, those who have invested with us for the past 25 years, and to the developers who build the expansive universes and experiences that are embraced by players across the world,” Sharma wrote in a message to Microsoft’s gaming employees.

She has worked on artificial intelligence products such as the Foundry for incorporating AI models into third-party applications.

“As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop,” Sharma wrote. “Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us.” 

Sharma said Microsoft will renew its commitment to console gaming. Microsoft’s original Xbox came out in 2001.

Matt Booty, head of Microsoft’s gaming studios, will report to Sharma as executive vice president and chief content officer.

“Together, Asha and Matt have the right combination of consumer product leadership and gaming depth to push our platform innovation and content pipeline forward,” Nadella wrote.

Sarah Bond, president and operating chief of the Xbox unit, will leave Microsoft.

“I’ve had the privilege of spending time with Asha over the last few weeks as we’ve planned for this transition, and I’ve seen firsthand her deep commitment to our players, developers, and brand,” Bond told Xbox employees in a message she also posted to LinkedIn. “She brings deep technology and commerce experience, along with a strong track record of building and scaling platforms that the world uses. Xbox deserves this.”

Bond and Spencer both said they will advise Sharma on the transition.

WATCH: Microsoft is still a buy for the longer term investor, says CFRA’s Sam Stovall

Police say a man walked into a Toronto hospital with a gunshot wound late Friday night.

Officers say the victim is an adult male who sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

Meanwhile, investigators responded to a shooting in the Antrim Crescent and Kennedy Road area around 10 p.m.

Police say the gunshot was heard inside an apartment building. Officers say the shooting may be linked to the man who walked into the hospital with the gunshot wound.

Kelowna, B.C., business owner David Lea is expressing frustration at ongoing social disorder plaguing the city.

“I’ve never seen it worse,” said Lea, who’s operated a business in Kelowna for 30 years.

Lea owns Toshido Mixed Martial Arts in Rutland, where he says he deals with frequent problems.

“It’s just a constant infestation of feces, crack pipes, syringes, garbage — you know, it’s just, it’s an ongoing concern,” Lea said. “It makes doing business so much harder, so much more expensive.”

Lea said the latest incident happened on Thursday, when a big mess was left in front of his martial arts studio.

“It was a disaster,” Lea said. “My kids class was starting at 4:00. I got here at 3:30 and there was smashed crack pipes everywhere. There’s syringes, garbage. They had a big fire right up on our main entrance.”

On Thursday, the City of Kelowna announced its latest response to the ongoing issues: temporary overnight security patrols.

“We have a private security company under the guidance of the city, who are out patrolling in those overnight hours,” said Darren Caul, the city’s community safety director.

“This private security company is two individuals who are able to patrol the back alleys and and the streets, notify RCMP should there be crimes in progress.”

Frustrated business operators have long called for overnight patrols.

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While many welcome the new measure, some aren’t sure how effective a ‘temporary’ program will be, one that’s expected to be in place for only several months.

“You know, ‘temporary,’ the word always kind of scares me a little bit. But I think it’s a step in the right direction,” said Todd Daniels, owner of Gallery Streetwear in downtown Kelowna.

The city will use data from RCMP, bylaw enforcement and the security team to determine where it’s most needed, but Caul said for now, the city is zeroing in on one area.

“For the moment the focus is on the downtown, because this is one of the areas that is where there is an acute need at this time,” Caul said.

Lea said the acute need also exists in Rutland and is calling for the same resources to be deployed there, too.

“We should be getting that kind of attention that the downtown people are getting. It’s that simple,” Lea said.

2:03
Kelowna CCTV registry concerns

Caul said it will deploy overnight security to Rutland based on the data it’s regularly reviewing.

“Through that data and that daily exchange of information between security, bylaw services and the RCMP, where those focal points are, we will shift,” Caul said. “And over time, should we see a hot spot emerge elsewhere in the city, we would redeploy that security team to that hot spot.”

Lea said he feels businesses in Rutland are being left behind.

“If they don’t start doing something, we’re going to have to,” Lea said. “And I really don’t think that’s good for anybody, but we’re being left with no other option.”

With data-driven deployment of resources, Caul encouraged residents to always report crime to police.

“It’s really important for citizens to consistently report crimes that come up because if the police don’t know what’s happening, the police can’t go,” Caul said. “So through consistent reporting by the public, that then informs the data that drives deployment.”

The $16,000 monthly program is being funded through the city’s public safety levy.

If effective, it could be expanded.

2:16
Rutland urging increased police support

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Alberta is two and a half years removed from hearing Premier Danielle Smith declare her government looked forward optimistically to doubling the province’s population to 10 million people by 2050.

She also spent part of 2024 repeatedly musing that Red Deer, with its 106,000 residents, ought to swell to one million.

But that was then. Times have changed.

Certainly, the public mood toward immigration has changed, all over Canada, as a recent surge in newcomers (though not quite as aggressive as Smith had fancied) strained housing and some public services.

Alberta’s budget picture has changed, too —  lower than expected oil prices jerking the province from an $8.3 billion surplus in Smith’s more-bullish-on-immigration days to a big deficit this year, and another bath of red ink the premier has forewarned will come in next Thursday’s budget.

She drew a straight bold line between rising immigration rates and her province’s fiscal woes in her televised speech Thursday: “Throwing the doors open to anyone and everyone across the globe has flooded our classrooms, emergency rooms and social support systems with far too many people, far too quickly.”

She’s proposed solutions to this problem she’s cited: trying to restrict newcomers, and the services they received. But rather than act on them immediately, she’ll ask Albertans to ratify her ideas or reject them in referendums this fall.

Smith has now scheduled for Oct. 19 five different ballot questions on immigration — and four more about various constitutional reforms that preoccupied her Alberta Next panels, including on Senate abolition and the province seizing judge-selection duties from Ottawa.

Nine in total, potentially to be joined by a 10th.

That’s the One Question to Rule Them All: whether Alberta should separate from Canada. (This happens if the independence movement succeeds with its ongoing petition drive.) 

Those nine or 10 questions amount to more direct democracy than Alberta has ever reckoned with. Not just in one year — in all 120 years of this province’s existence, there have been eight province-wide referendums (including three in the early days about prohibition, three on daylight saving time, one on electrification and 2021’s question on equalization).

How will all these questions interact, the ones that appeal to Albertans’ abiding interests in immigration and Senate reform with a deeply existential question on Alberta’s future in Canada, which public opinion appears to be sharply against?

One might need a panel of political scientists plus a few psychology professors to determine that.

Plus, there will be eight months of public discussion and debate to come on this assortment of questions, a period that might require Alberta voters to become constitutional scholars and federalism experts to understand the ins and outs and options presented here.

But what seems clear is the provocative focus that Smith has now placed on non-permanent newcomers — specifically international students, temporary foreign workers and asylum seekers — and what they deserve or don’t deserve to receive.

“This is what we’re talking about — making sure the services are prioritized to the people who’ve registered a permanent stake in our country and our province,” she told reporters Friday.

“That’s Canadian citizens and permanent residents. And temporary individuals should be treated as that — temporary, and tourists.”

She’s casting it in pure economic terms, but there is a long tradition of expansive debates about immigration becoming more loaded and volatile.

One need not look only to the United States and some European countries for how the discourse gets cultural — some has also shown up in Alberta, including the social media feed of senior Smith aide Bruce McAllister this week. 

“Why import from nations with failed systems when our Judeo-Christian heritage and principles have worked so well here?” he wrote, prompting Smith to defend both her Calgary director and Alberta’s diverse mix of diaspora communities.

The NDP call it all scapegoating. 

“The level of racism and hate that has been expressed has risen, undoubtedly, and it is aligned with this premier’s attempt to pin all of her failings on newcomers to this province,” the Opposition’s deputy leader Rakhi Pancholi said Friday.

Smith took umbrage with those who labelled her plan to charge non-permanent residents a special fee for services as a “head tax.”

“Is that what you would characterize Ontario’s charging of a health-care premium to non-permanent residents?” she fired back in a news conference. “You’d call that a head tax?”

(All Ontarians making above $20,000 pay health-care premiums, not unlike Albertans were once charged.)

Smith is, however, correct that other provinces have less generous policies or phase-in periods for non-permanent residents and their families, although none have done so by getting all voters to weigh in on those specific proposals.

If the government intends to touch off an eight-month debate on the facts, it would perhaps be wise to set some baseline numbers now.

According to the latest Statistics Canada population estimate, about 281,000 people in Alberta were non-permanent residents as of October. In what’s now a five-million person province, that’s around 5.5 per cent of the population, which is below the national average.

Alberta’s non-permanent population actually began to fall last year, down 15,000 from the start of 2025. 

Amid what seemed like a growing consensus that immigration was unsustainable during the pandemic and in years following, the federal government had stepped in to curb streams of temporary foreign workers, international students and asylum seekers.

It’s gotten to the point where more non-permanent migrants moved out of Alberta than arrived, indicating that the curve has already been bending before any provincial interventions or referendums.

Temporary foreign workers pay income taxes to fund services, as do some visiting students with work visas and non-permanent refugees (like the tens of thousands of Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion).

However, even as the taxpaying population grows and the economy expands too, Alberta’s deficits don’t seem to be abating.

That suggests that Alberta’s fiscal and revenue structure could have much to do with the shortfall. But how would one shape a referendum around that?

The number of road fatalities across Alberta continues to climb this winter, as police and road safety advocates point to challenging driving conditions caused by snow and icy roads, impaired driving and risky behaviour behind the wheel as key contributors.

According to the RCMP, there have been 23 fatal collisions in RCMP-policed areas in Alberta between Jan. 1 and Feb. 19, 2026, resulting in the deaths of 26 people.

“We were double the accidents from last year, but you have to be reminded that last December we didn’t have all the snow that we had this year for winter,” said Cpl. Teri-Ann Bakker, public information officer with the Alberta RCMP. 

Bakker said while the total number of road fatalities so far this year is basically in keeping with  the province’s annual average of 200 to 250 traffic deaths, the number of traffic-related deaths in December 2025 marked a sharp increase compared to the previous year.

In December 2025, RCMP jurisdictions in Alberta recorded 20 fatal collisions, more than double the nine reported in December 2024. 

“Over 70 per cent of them are directly attributed to poor weather and road conditions,” said Bakker.

She said RCMP data shows roughly 30 per cent of collisions each year involve alcohol or drugs. Impaired driving remains a top enforcement priority, alongside speed, seatbelt compliance, intersection safety and distracted driving.

“Believe it or not, when I was in traffic, I pulled people over for reading books,” Bakker said. “They were reading books. There’s people that were watching movies. There were people who were putting on makeup.” 

Recent fatal crashes in Edmonton prompt safety advice

According to the Edmonton Police Service, two fatal collisions have taken place in Alberta’s capital so far in 2026. EPS said there has been an upward trend in the number of fatal collisions in Edmonton in recent years: 32 fatal collisions occurred in 2025, up from 26 in 2024 and 24 in 2023. 

On Edmonton’s ring road, there have been two fatal incidents in recent weeks. On Feb. 8, a person died on Anthony Henday Drive while changing a tire, and on Jan. 26, a person was killed when their broken-down car, in the outer lane of Anthony Henday Drive east of Heritage Valley Trail, was rear-ended by a pickup truck.

Debbie Hammond, executive director for Safer Roads Alliance, spoke about how needing to pull over to the side of the road can also result in dangerous situations that drivers may underestimate.

She had advice for drivers on what to do if they need to pull over.

“Put your hazards on, get off the highways if you can. … If you can drive the car [towards an] off-ramp [and] onto a safe, quiet road, do that.”

Hammond said recent tragedies on major routes underscore the need for greater awareness and stronger policy. In the past, she said, a combination of enforcement campaigns, public education and automated traffic monitoring helped deter dangerous behaviour.