B.C. Premier David Eby has written a letter urging the governors of three western U.S. states to join the province in ending the seasonal time change.

“Despite the trade challenges before us, our Cascadia region remains deeply integrated through tourism, trade and transportation and we value you as close neighbours and friends,” the letter reads.

“We want our economies to be aligned, for travel and trade to be be unhindered.”

On Monday, Eby announced that this weekend will be the last time the province will spring forward, making daylight saving time permanent.

7:11
B.C. moves to permanent daylight saving time

In a letter to the governors of Washington, Oregon and California, Eby said he is asking them to advocate for authorization from the U.S. Congress.

There is also still some debate that a permanent change to daylight saving is not the best course.

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“In counties in the U.S., where they’ve had permanent daylight saving time, they’ve organized that, they found more children were injured in the morning going to school and found that teenage students had lower graduation rates and did worse at school,” Wendy Hall, a UBC nursing professor emeritus, said.

However, B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma said that most British Columbians want to make the permanent change.

“British Columbians told us through their survey input that they preferred to have that extra hour of daylight during the summer and for eight months of the year we can take advantage of that,” she said.

“Now it’s all year long without that change.”

2:14
Time change could affect bottom line

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A majority of Canadians say members of Parliament should not be allowed to cross the floor to another party and should face an “immediate” byelection if they do so, a new poll suggests.

However, Wednesday’s Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News found Canadians’ displeasure with floor-crossing MPs has not hurt the overall approval for Prime Minister Mark Carney or his Liberal government.

In fact, those approval numbers have gone up since last year, with over one-third of Canadians saying they are even more supportive of Carney after three MPs left the Conservatives to join the Liberals in recent months.

“They’re prepared to punish the individuals who do it (cross the floor), but not necessarily prepared to hold it against the leaders of the parties that promote it,” said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs.

“And it has not created a stronger desire for an election.”

The poll was conducted late last month, after Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux became the latest Conservative to cross the floor of the House of Commons — bringing Carney’s Liberals even closer to a majority government.

4:00
Could Liberals gain majority without going to polls?

Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont became the first to abandon the Official Opposition in November, followed a month later by Ontario MP Michael Ma.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has accused all three of his former caucus members of betraying their voters, noting they ran under the Conservative banner in last spring’s federal election.

The Ipsos poll found 62 per cent of Canadians surveyed believe MPs should not be allowed to switch parties after an election, while nearly 70 per cent said crossing the floor should trigger an immediate byelection in the MP’s district.

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Roughly a quarter of respondents agreed strongly with both statements.

Just 41 per cent said they were comfortable with their own MP switching parties, with only 10 per cent strongly agreeing. The numbers were higher among Liberal voters and Canadians aged 18 to 34.

Despite that disapproval, 64 per cent said it is likely that enough MPs will end up switching to the Liberals in order to give Carney a majority government.

Asked if the three recent floor-crossings make them more or less approving of Carney, 37 per cent of Canadians said they were more approving and 23 per cent were less approving.

Those numbers flipped when the same question was posed about Poilievre, while around 40 per cent said their opinion had not changed for either leader.

3:18
Where does Edmonton MP’s defection to Liberals leave Conservatives, Poilievre?

Ipsos found both Carney and the Liberals are continuing to enjoy broad support, with the party widening its lead over the Conservatives to eight points.

Forty-four per cent of Canadians surveyed said they would vote for the Liberals if an election were held tomorrow, up four points from December, while the Conservatives fell one point to 36 per cent.

Just eight per cent said they would choose the NDP, down one point, while the 31 per cent support the Bloc Québécois would garner in Quebec translated to seven per cent nationally, down two points. The Green Party was up one point to three per cent.

Among the party leaders, Carney was the only one to see more approval than disapproval among those surveyed, with 58 per cent voicing support and 33 per cent against. The approval number is up 10 points from when Ipsos polled Canadians during the federal election campaign.

“The honeymoon continues,” Bricker said. “In fact, it gets sweeter every day.”

Nearly half of Canadians disapprove of Poilievre, meanwhile, which is seven points more than those who approve of the Conservative leader. However, his 41 per cent approval is up six points from last year.

All other federal party leaders saw more Canadians voice disapproval than approval in the Ipsos poll. That includes NDP interim leader Don Davies, whose party is set to choose a new permanent leader at its convention in Winnipeg later this month.

Canadians remain split over whether they want to return to the ballot box this year, but the poll suggests they are souring on the idea: 37 per cent said they want another federal election, down three points since December.

Those who don’t want another election this year shot up six points to 44 per cent, while 19 per cent said they don’t know.

Two-thirds of Conservative voters said they want a new election, while a plurality of younger voters and men were more likely to say the same.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between February 25 and 26, 2026, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,001 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed online. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian population according to census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18+ been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

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WARNING: This article deals with suicide. Discretion is advised.

Laurenta and Randall Colombe say their daughter Marietta Star was an easygoing, loving child.

“She was very kind and obedient,” says the girl’s mom. “She listened. I always considered her my little helper.”
“It didn’t take much to make her happy,” says her dad.

That is, until recently. The Colombes say their 11-year-old started sleeping more, didn’t want to shower or take care of herself and tried to avoid school.

They say she was being bullied.

“It’s just stupid how society is. The way they you’re supposed to look or how you’re supposed to act,” says the girl’s father, her mother adding that she was picked on for her hair and clothes.

Randall Colombe says he went to the north-end elementary school Maurietta attended.

“I (said) my daughter doesn’t like being picked on and being bullied what are you guys going to do about this,” he says. “Nothing was ever done.”

On Feb. 4, he was finishing at work while his wife took their eldest of seven kids to get a cake for his 18th birthday.

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Marietta was left home with siblings and seemed excited there would be cake later.

Laurenta and her eldest returned home two hours later to the unimaginable.

Marietta was found in a room in the basement with a rope around her neck tied to joist.

“Her face was cold and I just gently laid her down and I started CPR,” says her mom. Paramedics couldn’t save the girl.

Winnipeg police found a crumpled note in Marietta’s pillow case and the family has since found drawings depicting the girl’s torment at school.

“That’s pressure a lot of pressure for a little 11-year-old,” says her grandmother, Freda Moose. “My baby’s gone. It’s so heartless — it’s cruel. Bullying is cruel to death.”

The family is sharing their grief in hopes that schools and parents will do more to stop bullying.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what we’re going through,” Laurenta says. Marietta was the middle of seven children, each now grappling with their sister’s death.

The Winnipeg School Division has conflict resolution and mediation protocols in schools but did not say if those were followed in this matter.

The division told Global News this is a “heartbreaking loss” and intensive clinical services have been provided for staff and students at the school.

Anti-bullying advocates say there’s more to be done.

“We have to continue to have the conversation with kids,” says Carolyn Tuckwell, an anti-bullying advocate with the Boys and Girls Club.

“Help kids understand that really how we interact with each other can have such a positive influence world or it can have a completely negative influence in the world.”

Something the Colombes know too well.

If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available 24/7. Call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Crisis Helpline.

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With a free play in Lotto Max, an Ontario man went from just making a grocery run to becoming a millionaire.

Francois Masse of Hawkesbury, Ont., said Wednesday that he can still hardly believe it two months after winning in the Jan. 9 draw.

He said in a news release from OLG that he was leaving the Asselin’s Your Independent Grocer on Cameron Street when he remembered he had a free play ticket from a previous draw to redeem.

“I added ENCORE for $1, put the ticket in my wallet, and went on about my day,” he recalled.

Masse was at the OLG Prize Centre on Wednesday to collect his winnings.

He said it was a few days after he remembered he had three tickets to check and scanned them with the OLG app.

The first ticket won him another free play, the second was worth $40, but when he scanned the last one, he was in “disbelief.”

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“I saw the ‘Big Winner’ message on the screen and went numb with disbelief — it was like the world stopped for a minute,” he said. “It was an out-of-body experience. I kept telling myself it couldn’t be true.”

Masse said that after pacing around the house for five minutes, he checked the ticket again and saw the same message.

He then made a call to OLG for information about the prize claim process, and took another three hours to process before he called his family to tell them the news.

But even that took some convincing since he said his family likes to joke a lot.

“We all know we’ll commit to a joke and pull each other’s legs, so they thought I was just really committed to my prank! Even my mom didn’t believe me,” Masse said.

The retired education worker said he knew he wanted to tell his children about the win in person, so he invited them over and, when they were together, had his kids scan the winning ticket for themselves.

“There were a lot of happy tears,” he said. “It was a wonderful, incredible moment to share as a family. I was filled with joy.”

Plans are already starting to take shape, Masse said, including a family trip to celebrate and then checking items off his bucket list, such as Formula 1 races and touring NFL stadiums.

He added he will be taking steps to ensure his family is taken care of, saying the win is for his family and “the legacy we’ll leave behind.”

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A union representing Saskatchewan library workers says they are dealing with escalating threats and violence.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said Tuesday that drug addiction issues are the source of such problems.

It’s calling on Premier Scott Moe’s government to take emergency action.

“Members have had weapons pulled on them,” union president Kent Peterson said in an interview. “This is a pretty common occurrence.

“It’s just an indication of the reality that people are turning up in libraries because there are so few supports and services available to them.”

Peterson said a library worker in Regina lost a finger about a year ago after it was cut off by a machete.

The Regina Public Library, however, disputed Peterson. In a statement, the library said the 2023 machete altercation began outside the building and ended with the injury occurring in the library entrance.

“No staff lost a finger,” the library said in a statement Wednesday.

Peterson also recounted a woman in Saskatoon who fought with a man in a parking lot after he reportedly tried to stuff her into the trunk of his car.

“We’ve had members who have been sexually assaulted at work, in the hallway at work because of these (addiction and homelessness) issues,” Peterson said.

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“It is not uncommon for our library workers to deal with folks who are overdosing.”

2:08
Saskatoon Public Library temporarily closes 2 locations over overdose concerns

Peterson joined the Opposition NDP at an earlier news conference in Saskatoon to call on the Saskatchewan Party government to provide meaningful investment into community services.

NDP health critic Vicki Mowat said the toxic drug crisis continues to spiral out of control, with Saskatoon’s homeless population larger than it was a year ago.

“Library workers are not first responders and they should not be left to do the job of the provincial government,” she told reporters.

Last year, two libraries in Saskatoon temporarily closed due to heightened drug use and violence.

At the legislature Tuesday, Joan Pratchler of the NDP asked whether Social Services Minister Terry Jenson would take responsibility for the growing violence.

In response, Jenson told the assembly the province is working with the cities of Regina and Saskatoon and community organizations to tackle the issue.

“We have outreach teams that meet people in place … whether that be somewhere in the community. It could be on the street, it could be in front of the library,” he said.

Jenson later told reporters the province has spent $118 million to address homelessness, addictions and mental health issues. The province is also adding more housing units in Saskatoon and Regina, he said.

“This is not something that is going to be solved overnight, this is not going to be solved with a snap of a finger,” he said.

“This is something that is only going to be solved with the collaboration and co-operation of municipalities.”

Peterson said issues are just as bad as they were a year ago.

“If the minister thinks that what they’re doing is adequate, they’ve never stepped foot in a library in the last number of years,” he said.

Jenson said he hasn’t been inside a library in Saskatoon, but has seen “individuals” outside from time to time.

Asked if he should visit with workers to discuss violence, the minister said employees should call the police if they are ever threatened.

“If somebody’s feeling harmed working at 7-Eleven, does that mean I should go talk to the individual at 7-Eleven?” he said. “The library is a civic facility.”

Saskatchewan’s government provided libraries with $11.6 million in funding last year. The cities of Regina and Saskatoon primarily fund their libraries through municipal taxes.

“Violence in the workplace is completely unacceptable, no matter the workplace,” Jenson said.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

One Ontario city says it will begin charging retailers $100 per shopping cart found abandoned on municipal property as the city looks to recover the costs associated with retrieving them.

The City of Brampton approved the measure during discussions related to the proposed 2026 budget in late February, directing staff to implement a user fee to offset staff time and resources used to collect carts left in public spaces.

According to a council motion, the fee will apply when shopping carts belonging to retailers are found abandoned on city property, like parks, waterways, transit stops and parking lots.

If staff determine the business has failed to properly manage them, it will be fined $100 for the city to recover the cart and bring it back to the establishment.

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The motion states the carts must be clearly identifiable as belonging to a retailer and that their abandonment must create hazardous conditions or pollution within the city for a business to receive a fine.

Council noted that the city has received an increasing number of complaints from residents about carts being left on municipal property and acknowledged that this has become a growing problem.

The motion further notes that abandoned carts can pose hazards for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists, impede accessibility and create risks to public safety.

Officials also say the carts can pose risks to wildlife and contribute to environmental pollution.

According to the city, collecting and removing the carts requires a significant amount of staff time and municipal resources, resulting in additional costs for the municipality.

Under the new policy, the $100 fee will allow the city to recover costs associated with retrieving and managing carts.

During council discussions, members also discussed communication with Walmart regarding the issue.

Council noted that Walmart does not currently use GPS locking technology on its shopping carts in Brampton, according to meeting documents.

Staff were directed to report back in the first quarter of 2026 on whether Brampton should require retailers to install locking technology that would prevent shopping carts from leaving store property.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Canada’s artificial intelligence minister will meet virtually with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Wednesday afternoon to discuss changes the company has committed to making after last month’s mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

The timing was confirmed to Global News by a spokesperson for AI Minister Evan Solomon’s office.

Solomon sought the meeting with Altman after OpenAI said last week it would enhance its police referral and repeat offender detection practices, among other new safety measures, after it did not flag the Tumbler Ridge shooter’s ChatGPT activity to police last summer.

The company, which said it disabled Jesse VanRootselaar’s account in June over “violent” activity, said in a statement that it had also discovered a second ChatGPT account linked to her name after the shooting, despite a system that flags repeat policy offenders.

OpenAI ultimately alerted RCMP to the shooter’s ChatGPT activity after the mass shooting, in which eight people died and dozens more were injured. The shooter took her own life.

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OpenAI acknowledged in its statement last week that, “under our enhanced law enforcement referral protocol, we would refer the account banned in June 2025 to law enforcement if it were discovered today.”

2:04
OpenAI representatives summoned to Ottawa over Tumbler Ridge shooting

Solomon said in a statement last week that OpenAI’s commitments, while welcome, did not include “a detailed plan for how these commitments will be implemented in practice” and that more clarity was needed.

“I will be meeting directly with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman next week to seek further clarity and to ensure that the commitments made are translated into concrete action,” he wrote.

Altman has yet to comment publicly on the Tumbler Ridge shooting, the commitments his company has made in response, or his meeting with Solomon.

British Columbia Premier David Eby has said he will also meet with Altman, but a date for that meeting has not yet been announced. Global News has reached out to Eby’s office for comment.

OpenAI’s commitments came after company representatives met with Solomon and three other federal ministers in Ottawa to discuss its safety practices.

The ministers left the meeting “disappointed” that OpenAI did not present “concrete actions” it would take in response, while experts and opposition MPs called on the government to step in with regulations.

Solomon has not ruled out legislation to address police referral practices for AI companies that detect violent behaviour on their platforms. The minister has said he will meet with other companies in the coming weeks to discuss the issue.

Eby has called for a national standard for police referrals, calling OpenAI’s improvements and commitments for change “cold comfort for the people in Tumbler Ridge.”

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The family of a missing Mississauga, Ont., woman is pleading for information they hope will bring justice for their loved one, as police say her disappearance is now considered a homicide.

Suleiman Ahmadi said his sister, Mezhgan Aini, was a kind and caring person who loved her children and “always” supported her family.

“She was strong even during difficult times,” Ahmadi said in an interview from Afghanistan. “We love her so much and we miss her.”

Aini and her husband, Mohammad Yama Aini, lived in the U.S. before moving to Canada in 2017.

Peel Regional Police Det. Kevin Robbie told Global News that Aini’s husband had an allegation of assault presented in New York against him, but it did not result in charges due to diplomatic immunity. Mohammad was a former United Nations diplomat.

“It was our understanding he was supposed to go back to Afghanistan to speak with government officials, and he, in turn, came to Canada instead,” Robbie said in an interview on Monday.

Court documents indicate in July 2017, Mohammad alleged his wife tripped on a broom and fell, bruising her face near her right eye, so he drove her to the hospital. The records say staff asked his wife about possible violence from her husband, but she denied he had harmed or abused her.

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Aini’s brother told Global News she was the type who “wants peace.”

“Mezhgan was a very kind person and she was a person that wants peace in her life,” he said. “She puts things down and said that, ‘It’s OK, we don’t have any problem,’ and continued living with her husband. We were worried for her safety.”

1:52
She vanished in 2022. Peel police now treating her disappearance as homicide

Police said Monday in a news release that Aini, who also went by the names “Sara” or “Sarah,” was reported missing in June 2025 by family members in Afghanistan who had been unable to reach her for an extended period of time.

Robbie said 12 Division initially received the report and began a missing persons investigation. Investigators looked into her friends, family, coworkers, her banking, phone records and medical history.

“There was no signs of life that they were able to find out since June of 2022,” Robbie said.

According to her brother, they stopped communicating with Aini at some point in 2022.

He said her husband told the family she was sick, which they believed. But the family eventually became suspicious.

“(For) about three years we were unaware about Mezhgan’s life or about Mezhgan’s health,” he said. “We don’t have any photo of Mezhgan and we didn’t have any news (about) Mezhgan’s life.”

It’s what prompted the family to contact police.

The family says they’re also worried for Mezhgan’s children, who live with their father.

Authorities say Aini’s husband has been co-operating in the police investigation.

Asked if Aini’s husband is a person of interest in the investigation, Robbie said he “can’t say what his status is at this time.”

However, the detective confirmed to Global News they have “identified a suspect.”

“We want justice for our sister, because she deserves that,” Ahmadi said.

—With files from Global News’ Caryn Lieberman, Catherine McDonald and Aaron D’Andrea

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

One year after the U.S. sparked a global trade war with repeated rounds of tariffs, more than half of Canada’s small businesses say the U.S. is no longer a reliable trading partner, according to the latest data.

A report released Wednesday by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) shows that 52 per cent of business owners surveyed agreed with this sentiment.

Three-quarters of small businesses that participated, or 75 per cent, said tariffs have strained their relationship with U.S. partners or clients, which is up from 49 per cent a year ago.

U.S. President Donald Trump last year imposed tariffs on goods imported from virtually all countries. The unpredictable nature of Trump’s foreign relations and trade policies has led to uncertainty for consumers, businesses and governments alike.

“Small businesses have faced massive uncertainty since the trade battle began last year,” Dan Kelly, CFIB president, said in the report.

“Small business owners have been dealing with the whiplash of trying to keep up with sudden changes and threats, including many that don’t happen or are revised within hours. With CUSMA coming up for review in the months ahead, the stakes are even higher.”

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The CFIB’s report was based on data from two surveys conducted in December 2025 and February, and featured 1,379 and 1,663 participants, respectively. The organization says Ottawa needs to do more to help small businesses impacted by tariffs.

“Small business owners are telling us they feel abandoned in dealing with tariff costs,” Michelle Auger, CFIB director of trade and marketplace competitiveness, said in the report.

“With fewer people starting businesses, we can’t afford to overlook the ones we have. Ottawa needs to step up and find better ways to help.”

1:06
Carney announces $80M tariff relief for businesses in Atlantic Canada

The manufacturing sector has been most impacted by tariffs in Canada, including steel and aluminum, lumber, automobiles and auto parts.

Most other products and services are exempt from tariffs so long as they conform to the terms of the current Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), but that’s up for review later this year.

Twenty-seven per cent of businesses are hurt by tariffs on non-CUSMA-compliant goods, according to the CFIB, and 68 per cent of Canadian small business owners participating in the surveys report being negatively affected by U.S. tariffs.

The federal and provincial governments, as well as business owners large and small, have been working to diversify trading partners to avoid immediate tariff impacts and to mitigate future trade shocks.

Prime Minister Mark Carney recently wrapped up trips to China and India and is currently in Australia to help establish these renewed trade relationships.

Tariffs have essentially stunted business growth in Canada, with GDP rising less than two per cent in 2025. Annualized economic growth of two per cent has been the standard in Canada for each of the previous two years.

Multiple rounds of job cuts in Canada’s impacted sectors have also been a direct result of tariffs, with General Motors and Algoma Steel being a couple of the most recent examples.

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