Blue Jays president Shapiro says GM Atkins will continue in current role

EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she wants to depoliticize the debate around upcoming legislation affecting transgender youth, but a federal minister says that’s not possible.

Marci Ien, the federal Liberals’ minister for gender equality, says on social media that creating the legislation itself is a political act.

Ien’s comments come after Smith posted a new video online in which she says those who consider the new policies harmful are misguided.

Smith added she wants the forthcoming debate on the legislation, to be introduced when the house reconvenes later this month, to be mature and compassionate.

Ien says she’s offered to meet with Smith to discuss the legislation further, but that the sweeping changes being proposed could threaten lives.

The legislation, first announced by Smith in an online video in January, seeks to prohibit those under 18 from undergoing gender affirmation surgery, those under 16 from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy, and more.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

ST. JOHN, N.B. – The second person to die at a Saint John, N.B., homeless encampment in as many months was funny, generous and very much loved, says a community volunteer who says he knew him well.

Forty-four-year-old Jamie Langille was found dead Tuesday evening at an encampment near the causeway over the Courtenay Bay Channel, police say.

Langille lost his leg to frostbite last winter while living by himself in a tent, but he remained kind and jovial, cracking jokes and sharing whatever he had, said Ivan McCullough, a co-founder of Street Team Saint John.

“Despite everything he had gone through — what would have broken a lesser soul — he was always, for the most part, very pleasant, very upbeat, very gracious,” McCullough said in an interview Wednesday.

“There’s going to be a hole in our community at large.”

Emergency responders found Langille dead in his tent after they arrived at the encampment just before 9 p.m. Tuesday, the Saint John Police Force said in a news release. His body was taken to hospital for an autopsy, but police said they do not believe his death was criminal.

McCullough said he did not yet know how Langille died. The public has a tendency to assume unhoused people typically die of drug overdoses, but that often isn’t true, he added.

Langille’s death comes just weeks after 58-year-old John Surette died in a tent near Paradise Row, in the north end of the city. Surrette was found not far from where three people died last winter in two separate tent fires.

The federal housing advocate, Marie-Josée Houle, has said that in order to respect people’s human right to housing, cities and provinces should provide essentials to people living in encampments — heat, sanitation, electricity — if officials cannot provide them with a safe, stable place to live.

Those kinds of basic amenities “would have helped” prevent some of the deaths, McCullough said.

“We keep running into a … ‘Not in my backyard’ situation,” he said. “People all agree something needs to be done, but don’t do it near me. It’s demoralizing.”

The public needs a better understanding of what is happening in Saint John — and in New Brunswick — to drive people into homelessness, he said.

“A whole lot of the folks who are unhoused are not substance abusers, or they weren’t when they first got on the street,” McCullough said. “We know folks who are on the street that have full-time jobs. They’ve been renovicted, they’ve been basically told to get out.”

A “renoviction” occurs when a landlord evicts a tenant to renovate an apartment and put it back on the market for a higher rent.

New Brunswickers will elect a new provincial government on Oct. 21. McCullough said he hopes party leaders will put forth strong housing policies that recognize the systemic issues forcing people to try to survive in encampments.

As of about 2:30 p.m. local time Wednesday, no party or leader had made a statement about Langille’s death on social media, nor had any party issued a media release about it.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2024.

— By Sarah Smellie in St. John’s, N.L.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Edmonton’s Wil Bateman has learned to ride the waves of being a professional golfer in his second season on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Bateman is one of three Canadians competing in this week’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship, the finale of the second-tier circuit’s season. He’s 54th on the tour’s points list with a card for next year all but assured.

He said that’s in large part to his steady approach to golf, seeing the larger picture of his career.

“I’m just trying to stay positive throughout the weeks and throughout the year,” said Bateman. “Just conserving my energy, especially in those really long stretches, I think I’ve done really good job at that.

“Just mentally staying positive and realizing that there’s still lots of opportunity in front of me. Obviously you want to get a tour card, you want to be on the PGA Tour, but everybody’s path is different.”

Bateman was the overall winner of the PGA Tour Canada — now PGA Tour Americas — in 2022, winning two events after making all 10 cuts on the third-tier circuit. That moved him up to the Korn Ferry Tour, where he finished 68th overall last year.

This year, Bateman’s more balanced approach, including taking some events off, has paid off.

Bateman tied for 62nd at this year’s RBC Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf and Country Club on June 2, his only PGA Tour event of the year.

He made 12 of 20 cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour, with one runner-up, two top 10s and five top 25s. His best stretch was six consecutive cuts made — five on the Korn Ferry Tour and the Canadian Open result — from the Club Car Championship on April 7 to the Compliance Solutions Championship on June 23.

“I feel like the game’s close and I’m there. It’s just a matter of a little bit of momentum going my way and then putting it together for four rounds,” said Bateman. “Some of those tournaments where I’m making the cut five straight weeks and not having a top 25.

“You’re playing good golf, and you’re super close, you’re just kind of not putting it all together.”

Myles Creighton of Digby, N.S., is the top-ranked Canadian on the Korn Ferry Tour at No. 41 on the points list. He’ll join Bateman and Etienne Papineau (No. 65) of St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que., at French Lick Golf Resort’s Pete Dye Course in French Lick, Ind., for the championship tournament.

Bateman, in good shape to return to the Korn Ferry Tour next year, will continue his steady approach at this week’s event.

“I knew coming into this week that I have to finish first or second to get a PGA Tour card,” he said. “I don’t really have much to lose, because I’m going to definitely finish inside the top 60, so I’ll be able to have another opportunity to get my PGA Tour card at Q-School final stage if I don’t finish first or second this week.”

PGA TOUR — Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., returns to play just four days after competing in the elite Presidents Cup. He’s one of three Canadians in the field at this weeks Sanderson Farms Championship, which he won in 2022. Hughes is 51st in the FedEx Cup Fall standings. He’ll be joined at the Country Club of Jackson in Jackson, Miss., by Adam Svensson (73rd) of Surrey, B.C., and Roger Sloan (168th) of Merritt, B.C.

DP WORLD TOUR — Toronto’s Richard T. Lee is the only Canadian in the field at this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the storied Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland. He’s unranked on the European-based DP World Tour, having played most of his golf on the Asian Tour this season. He’s 12th on the Asian Tour’s order of merit.

EPSON TOUR — Vancouver’s Leah John is the top-ranked Canadian heading into this week’s Epson Tour Championship in Indian Wells, Calif. She’s 55th on the second-tier women’s circuit. She’ll be joined at Indian Wells Golf Resort — Players Course by Maddie Szeryk (83rd) of London, Ont., and Brigitte Thibault (119th) of Rosemere, Que.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2024.