In the sports documentary miniseries The Last Dance, Michael Jordan describes how, as a young rookie, he was confronted with an invitation to take part in illicit activities with teammates, including drugs and gambling.

He “did not go through that door,” realizing “he was in the NBA to get better.” Nowadays that kind of moral compass feels increasingly rare.

The recent gambling and fraud scandal rocking the NBA, for example, illustrates how, when sport leaders compromise on sport values — respect, excellence, safety and fairness — they compromise the value of sport to individuals and society as a whole.

The purpose of sport is individual and community development. The word “compete” is derived from the Latin competere which means to strive (for excellence) together.

How should we move forward?

As I near the conclusion of my current term as chief, I am left to wonder what the future holds for Sioux Valley Dakota Nation.

I was lucky to have been spared the abuses experienced by my peers. I was fortunate to have been raised by both my parents, both residential school survivors, in a farm enterprise that gave me the foundation and work ethic I needed to survive. This experience was something that I thought was typical of my neighbours and fellow band members of Sioux Valley Dakota Nation.

As a newly elected young chief, I naively thought that all I had to do was create jobs, as I subscribed to the belief that “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” I immediately encountered community members who were angry and not pleasant to deal with, which I later attributed to intergenerational trauma.

This thankfully was not the case for everyone who have a lived experience in the residential school era or Sixties Scoop. In a discussion with a chief with more experience, we discussed issues we faced as a collective, and he shared his opinion as follows: “You won’t move your community forward without healing your people.”

AI ‘slop’ and the end of the internet

The pace of generative AI development has been swift and astonishing. Just recently, Google un-veiled a new AI tool called Veo 3 which can create ultra-realistic videos. In a demo in a news report, it was able to make a news story complete with video, audio, backgrounds, and a news anchor reading copy, virtually indistinguishable from anything created in a human-based, real news-room. The completed AI-generated video was ready within five minutes.

Although amazing and somewhat alarming, AI has been making media for a while, and it is increasingly difficult for humans to tell the difference between AI and human-generated content. An AI band and its music had been featured on Spotify with a million monthly followers before anyone noticed. A Canadian journalist has finally come clean and admitted that he created the AI band The Velvet Sundown as an experiment. But not before real human followers had gotten sucked into the hoax.

Besides many other issues with generative AI, these two examples bring up serious implications for the future of the internet. First, AI can generate content much faster than humans can. Second, the content that they generate is often indistinguishable from human-made content.

AI “slop” describes mass-produced, quickly made AI generated content that lack oversight or fact checking that is often generic. AI can also put together all kinds of slop by reusing human-generated content that exists on the internet and re-purposing it to create endless regenerated content. YouTube is especially prone to this, with numerous channels dedicated to self-help, philosophy, best-of lists, biographies, advice, yada yada yada, all made to be attractive and clickable to get the views that the YouTube economy is based on. You can recognize a YouTube AI slop channel by looking at its description page; they have usually joined YouTube within a year or so and are able to publish several videos or more a week, sometimes more than one a day, that have a similar style with minimal differentiation.

UN committee rightly calls out Canada’s devaluing of disability

Earlier this year, an expert United Nations committee rebuked Canada for its medical assistance in dying (MAID) regime.

In doing so, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities confirmed a key criticism voiced by Canadians with disabilities in recent years: that the massive expansion of MAID in Canada puts a target on the back of the disability community.

The committee expressed concern that Canada’s approach to MAID emphasizes individual autonomy without offering sufficient safeguards to protect vulnerable populations, especially persons with disability.

The experts called on Canada to reject the “Track 2” designation that makes MAID available to persons whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable.

The age of American leadership has been completely swept away

The miracle that was Pax Americana is past; the century of American stewardship of the free world is collapsing. The question is, what, if anything, will replace it?

Throughout the 20th century, the United States became the model of what a modern society should be. Its prosperous middle class, commitment to free trade, solid democracy and financial leadership both inspired the world and provided the institutional support for the greatest period of improvement the world had ever seen. America’s post-war leadership helped rebuild nations, liberalize economies and institutionalize global co-operation through multilateral organizations and rules-based systems.

That foundation is now crumbling. After a host of demeaning threats to former allies and the imposition of illegal tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, the voice of reason has vacated the highest levels of American leadership. The betrayal is profound; the loss of trust, complete. Where the U.S. was once viewed as a stabilizing force, it is increasingly seen as unpredictable, even hostile to the very order it helped build.

America’s moral authority rested on three pillars: a resolute adherence to the rule of law, belief in the sanctity of contract (with Americans voluntarily, rather than legally, meeting obligations), and, most importantly, ethical leadership that modelled liberal values through social reforms and systems of justice. These principles earned the respect of the global community and allowed America to lead not just by strength, but by example. All of this has been swept away in the blink of an eye.

Trump’s pharma pricing order could have big effect in Canada

President Donald Trump’s May 12 executive order that U.S. drug prices must not exceed the lowest price in other nations doesn’t mention Canada explicitly, but could cause significant damage to our public health-care system and ripple around the globe.

The move could massively increase prices in Canada (and other reference nations) and create a significant incentive for pharmaceutical companies to delay launching new medicines in lower-priced markets.

U.S. market size means that policy changes south of the border to regulate prices directly through the use of reference pricing, or indirectly benchmarking prices to Canada through importation, could have significant effects on the availability and price of pharmaceuticals in Canada. To preserve high prices in the United States, pharmaceutical companies might also choose to delay launching new medicines in Canada and other markets.

Research modelling the effect of U.S. prices for patented medicines if they are equal to or less than Canada’s shows prices in Canada increasing by an average of 216 percent and in some cases, more than 10-fold. By contrast, the United States would receive a discount of about 7.54 percent.

Vancouver SUV attack exposes crowd management falldowns

A car attack at a Filipino street festival in Vancouver just two days before Canada’s federal election has killed at least 11 people and injured many more.

The carnage along a street lined with food trucks took place shortly after one of the men vying to become Canada’s prime minister — New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh — attended the event. A shell-shocked Singh observed a moment of silence in Penticton, B.C., during another campaign stop the next day.

A 30-year-old Vancouver resident has been arrested, but the motivation behind the attack is unknown.

Vancouver police say the suspect has mental health issues and was known to police prior to the attack. Police also told a news conference there was no indication there was a need for extra policing at the festival, deeming it to have a “low threat level.”

Bogus pretext for the Trump tariffs

At first, the alleged flow of fentanyl across the Canada-U.S. border was the reason for the Trump administration’s decision to impose tough tariffs on Canadian goods and services. Now, Canada’s treatment of U.S. dairy products are the latest bogus justification for America’s trade war with Canada.

Over the past several days, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that Canada is imposing tariffs of more than 200 per cent on dairy products entering Canada from the U.S. Last week, his press secretary claimed the tariffs are “almost” 300 per cent.

As was the case with fentanyl, Trump and his minions are stretching the truth beyond the breaking point. The dairy tariffs they are complaining about are set out in the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement that Trump himself signed in 2018.

Under that agreement, Canada agreed to not impose any tariffs on 14 different categories of U.S. dairy products unless the flow of those specific products exceeded a certain (very high) volume. The tariffs only kick in once imports exceed the quota, and the tariff percentages have not increased since the CUSMA deal was signed.

Feds must explain Métis commitment

Manitobans, in fact all Canadians, should be concerned that a “treaty” is being signed to support another “nation” within Canada without discussion.

The new treaty has come into existence without consultation with First Nations or with the public. Is the “new” treaty just the recognition of the Red River Métis, or is it a precursor to establishing other Métis nations in other provinces? It seems likely that the treaty being signed will be considered a precedent for other Métis groups seeking similar recognition. What are the grounds for a new treaty?

Should we not expect that whatever obligations the government is undertaking on our behalf should at least be explained to us before documents are signed? Should we have a say on matters that may obligate us to yet-unknown costs and future problems? If an agreement is built on the notion of a Métis nation, shouldn’t we understand its underpinnings and rationale more clearly than most people do at the moment?

Most Canadians have never seen or read the essential texts that established our relationship with Indigenous people. The first, the 1763 Royal Proclamation, was issued after the French ceded Canada to the British after the defeat of the French colonists in Canada. The second, the numbered treaties, were signed by Indigenous leaders across the Prairies beginning in 1871 with the signing of Treaty 1 and concluding with Treaty 11, which ceded most of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and what is now Nunavut.

Skip the alcohol this Christmas

Drinking alcohol can cause cancer.

The more you drink, the greater the risk to your health. This may come as a shock to many Manitobans, but the scientific evidence has been accumulating for years now.

As a result, CancerCare Manitoba is launching a provincewide campaign on Dec. 11 to raise awareness of the role alcohol has in developing cancer and to encourage alcohol-free drinking starting this holiday season. Our goal is to help prevent the shock and fear of a cancer diagnosis for Manitobans and their families in the years to come.

The evidence is undeniable. In a World Health Organization (WHO) publication last year, the authors cited a study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Its findings are sobering, “Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive and dependence producing substance and is a Group 1 carcinogen, according to the study.”

Quarantining populism is worth a shot

In November 2023, Geert Wilders’ stridently anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim party swept the Dutch elections in what the media called a political earthquake.

The magnitude of his win came as a shock to the centre and left parties in the Dutch legislature. They jointly decided that “Europe’s most dangerous man” should never become prime minister.

The Dutch are not alone in seeking an institutional fix against hard-right populism. In legislatures across the European Union, politicians are erecting a “cordon sanitaire” against extremism — a red-line tactic to block far-right parties from entering governing coalitions.

It’s hardly enough, but it’s an important first step.