- Manitoba premier Wab Kinew has been answering all opposition questions in French for the last couple of days. Konrad Narth, the Tory interim leader, considered this to be a "basic lack of respect". It's worth noting that Narth represents the constituency of La Verendrye, which has the second largest Francophone population in the province after St. Boniface. I suspect Kinew is trying to smoke out the bigots in the Conservative Party, perhaps in the hope of winning that constituency next year (it was held by the NDP's Ron Lemieux from 1999 until 2011 when redistribution put Lemieux in a different constituency). This does not sit well with Raymond Hébert, an emeritus professor of political science at the Université de Saint-Boniface; he fears that this may be counterproductive to the expansion of bilingual services in the province.
- Former Conservative MP Chris Alexander has withdrawn from the Toronto mayoral race. This leaves Brad Bradford as the main rightwing candidate running against incumbent mayor Olivia Chow. One thing that might help save Chow, however, is the fact that it's too late to remove Alexander from the ballots, meaning he will still draw votes himself.
- A Bellingham, Washington resident has been charged with conspiring with the shooter responsible for the massacre at a school in Tumbler Ridge, BC in February. James Cody Bryant had allegedly been in contact with shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar for months prior to the attack, and provided funding as well as advice on how to pull it off, even down to stickers to decorate the weapons with in order to make the livestream of the attack more visually appealing.
- France has suspended the use of stun grenades after a 15 year old student had his hand blown off by one during the wave of student protests that has swept across the country. The protests, which began in mid-September in response to poor conditions and maintenance at school buildings, have disrupted almost a quarter of all high schools in the country; the centrist government as well as the far right blame the leftwing France Unbowed party and its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
- The RCMP has seized 13 firearms, two of which were sawed off, and some 20,000 rounds of ammunition during searches of two homes in the RM of West St. Paul just north of Winnipeg.
