Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced more flexible rules for claiming the Canada emergency response benefit (CERB) in response to critics who pointed out the initial rules excluded students and people working reduced hours. He also announced a wage boost for essential workers who make less than $2,500 a month, including those working in long-term care facilities for the elderly.…

Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday that chief public health officers have become “this generation’s rock stars.” And as long as rock stars have existed, there have been rock critics. Those with learned expertise rightly come to the fore in a public emergency. In a world of sickness and fear, the epidemiologist is king. But challenges to that expertise…

The larger-than-life story of Peter Pocklington, the infamous former owner of the Edmonton Oilers, is being recreated on the smallest of scales. Joel Cadieux, a Red Deer salesman and father of four, is building a biopic about the maverick businessman out of Lego. He has created 100 scenes of Pocklington’s time with the Oilers and…

A Spruce Grove, Alta., woman is teaming up with Edmonton businesses to collect donated tablets and phones to help seniors stay in touch with their families during the pandemic. Emily Jenks started Project Joy, named after her grandmother, after she and her three children talked about ways to help others, such as seniors separated from their families. “Wouldn’t it be…

This column is an opinion from Juliet Guichon and Ian Mitchell, faculty members in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. A recently filed statement of claim by the Alberta Medical Association argues that the Alberta government did not negotiate meaningfully and in good faith about the terms and conditions under which Alberta physicians…

Alberta Health Services (AHS) began collecting used N95 masks from intensive care units in Edmonton and Calgary Tuesday. AHS says the collection is part of a contingency plan in the “unlikely event” the province runs out of the respirators.  While many regions are facing shortages of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, including masks and respirators,…