CIBC agrees to settle Cerberus lawsuit for US$770 million

Fri, February 17, 2023 



TORONTO — CIBC says it has entered into an agreement to settle a lawsuit filed against it by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP.

The company says it's agreed to pay US$770 million to Cerberus to fully settle the lawsuit, including the most recent judgment of a New York court.

Earlier in January, a New York court decision found the Canadian bank liable for damages in the lawsuit, and at the time CIBC said it disagreed with the basis for the court's decision and planned to appeal.

The lawsuit was filed in November 2015 and concerned an October 2008 transaction where CIBC issued a limited recourse note to Cerberus specifying certain payment streams, and a 2011 transaction where CIBC sold a residual interest in the streams to the firm.

CIBC says it recorded a pre-tax provision of CAD$1.17 billion related to the settlement in its first-quarter 2023 results, which will be released on Feb. 24.

The bank says there's a difference of US$85 million between the provision and the settlement amount, which will be reflected in its second-quarter results.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2023.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CM)

The Canadian Press

University of British Columbia midwifery program expanded with another 20 seats

Fri, February 17, 2023



VANCOUVER — The provincial government is spending $1.7 million to expand the University of British Columbia's midwifery program.

The expansion from 28 to 48 seats, includes a dozen new spots in the bachelor of midwifery program and eight positions in the midwives bridging program, helping internationally educated midwives to become registered to practise in B.C.

Selina Robinson, the minister of post-secondary education, says the funding will significantly increase the program's capacity and make a positive difference for families.

Four of the bachelor of midwifery seats announced Friday were added last year and the remaining eight seats are available in September this year.

The bridging program seats were added in January 2022.

The government says 27 per cent of births in B.C. have a midwife present, the highest proportion in the country.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2023.

The Canadian Press

NOVA SCOTIA

Child-care funding aims to expand infant spaces, boost wages

Fri, February 17, 2023

Children play at a child-care centre at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax in this file photo from 2021. (Michael Gorman/CBC - image credit)

Nova Scotia's education minister announced $12 million in funding for the child-care sector on Friday, including money aimed at expanding the number of spaces for infants, further boosts to wages and help with inflation.

The money comes from the federal-provincial affordable child-care agreement, a $600-million deal intended to create $10 per day child care across the province by 2026.

The sector is going through "a huge and ongoing transformation" and Friday's announcement is meant to help, Education Minister Becky Druhan said in an interview.

Along with doubling the daily funding centres receive for infant spaces, the new money also includes a $1.50 hourly premium for early childhood educators who have additional certification.

"That will help recognize specialization in the field and help with retention," said Druhan.

Operating costs going up

Following the announcement last fall of a major wage increase for early childhood educators, there will be another three per cent increase across the board. That's in keeping with a recent raise for members of the public service.

The package Druhan announced in October tied future increases to those received by members of the public service.

Michael Gorman

Centres will get funding to cover the increases to minimum wage this year for entry level and untrained staff. All centres, family home providers and the Nova Scotia Before and After Program will get one-time grants to help with increased operational costs.

The grants are calculated based on a site's size and parent fees.

Helen Gamble, the owner and director of Health Park Early Learning Centre in Sydney, said the added money comes at a good time.

"Oil has gone up, food has gone up," she said.

"Electricity is going up, so it is just going to be … a help."

'A show of good faith'

Gamble, who is a member of an engagement group that communicates with the department, said there was hope among the sector that the help with increased costs would be more than a one-time grant. However, Gamble believes long-term sustainability could be addressed in the future through a new funding model.

Nova Scotia funded 1,145 child-care spaces for infants as of last October. Druhan said it's too soon to know how many more spaces will be created as a result of Friday's announcement, but Gamble said she thinks the money will be an incentive for sites to create more spaces.

"It's more costly than having any other age group, so I think it will make people think, 'We can do this with the support of the government.'"

There has been acrimony between the department and some operators as the transition process has played out, but Gamble said she believes the government has been listening in the last year.

"I think that it's definitely a show of good faith that they are trying to build a trusting relationship with the sector. I do think that this is a positive step."

Still, there's work to do, she said. There remains a "vast" shortage of early childhood educators, something Gamble said could affect the department's goal of continuing to add spaces to the sector.

"Although they are being trained, it's not keeping up with the demand."

N.S. brothers going head-to-head to honour Colored Hockey League


Fri, February 17, 2023 

An image of players from the Halifax Eurekas of the Colored Hockey League, dated 1906. (Black Media Mine - image credit)

Two Nova Scotia brothers will go head-to-head Saturday in a commemorative game to mark the 128th anniversary of the Colored Hockey League.

Percy Paris and John Paris Jr. will be honorary coaches in the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes Memorial Game, which is being held at the RBC Centre in Dartmouth.

The league, which saw teams from all over the Maritimes playing mainly on lakes and outdoor rinks, started in 1895.

Nearly 130 years later, all-Black players will suit up as members of the Halifax Eurekas and Dartmouth Jubilees — the two teams to play in the first official CHL game.

That first game ended in a tie. This year, bragging rights will be on the line, as the teams celebrate the CHL and Black contributors to Canada's game.

The Paris brothers believe this is the first time two Black siblings are coaching opposing all-Black teams, outside of the CHL.

"I never would have thought we had that opportunity in our lifetime anyway," Paris Jr. told CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia on Friday.

"Most families never have that, regardless of the sport, so it's going to be a pleasant one and I'll have fun ... watching him do his thing and I'll do mine."

The brothers grew up playing hockey in Windsor, N.S., which is considered the birthplace of the sport.

Michael Gorman/CBC

Paris Jr. said they never considered themselves Black hockey players, just hockey players.

"We were just playing hockey like the other kids did, like our dad taught us to do … we already knew what colour we were but we were playing the game simply because it was a game that kids played, adults played, fans loved," he said.

Paris played for the Saint Mary's Huskies and formed part of the first all-Black line in Canadian university and collegiate hockey.

He said the sport has come a long way since that game in 1895, but the culture itself still needs to change.

He said he tried diversifying the sport while employed at Dalhousie University in Halifax in the 1990s, by offering personal and professional development to Hockey Canada, the National Hockey League and the Canadian Hockey League, to no avail.

"We recognized over 30 years ago that there are things about the hockey culture that's had to change and that inclusion was never part of their game plan to the extent that it should be."

Advice for players

Paris Jr., who was the first Black coach in professional hockey, has decades of coaching experience.

His brother, on the hand, said he recognizes that he doesn't have as much.

To compensate, Paris said he has a surprise "motivational, highly skilled individual" to meet his players before the game.

Although the game is only for bragging rights, Paris Jr. encouraged the players to try their best and enjoy their time on the ice.

"Instead of worrying about scoring a ton of goals, worry about being the best you can be while you're playing, be content," Paris Jr. said.

Paris also encouraged the young athletes to take the game seriously as a sign of respect.

"No matter what the score, no matter what the score at the end of the game, I don't think anyone's going to care who won because there wouldn't be any losers," he said.

"And I just think we're going to go out there, we're going to have fun and we're going to pay tribute to those that are here presently and certainly those that have gone before us."

The game will start at 7 p.m. AT. Admission is free but donations to the Black Youth Ice Hockey Program are welcome.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

Saudi wealth fund becomes biggest outside Nintendo investor


Fri, February 17, 2023


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Saudi sovereign wealth fund now holds 8.26% of the stock in the video game maker Nintendo, making it the largest outside investor in the Japanese gaming outfit, a company filing said Friday.

The investment comes as part of efforts by the kingdom's Public Investment Fund to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy away from oil, including billions already spent on video game firms. The fund has been a major component in the plans of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, himself said to be an avid gamer.

The Public Investment Fund declined to comment Friday night about its increased stakes in Nintendo.

However, the purchase of Nintendo and other gaming stocks entangles the video game companies into the politics surrounding Saudi Arabia and its assertive 37-year-old crown prince. American intelligence agencies believe Prince Mohammed ordered the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

Nintendo did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Saudi investment.

A filing to Japanese regulators on Friday revealed the Public Investment Fund's holding in Kyoto-based Nintendo. Saudi Arabia has been steadily building its stake over recent months in the company, best known for its Super Mario Brothers franchise and its Nintendo Switch gaming console.

The Saudi fund remains behind Nintendo's own holdings in the gaming company. Nintendo is valued at $52 billion.

Nintendo stock closed slight down Friday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at $40.50 a share.

The Public Investment Fund did not immediately acknowledge increasing its holdings in Nintendo. It runs the Savvy Games Group, which aims to establish 250 gaming companies in Saudi Arabia and create 39,000 jobs. Savvy Games plans to invest some $38 billion into the gaming industry over the coming years.

Already, the Saudi wealth fund holds stock worth $2.9 billion in Activision Blizzard, $1.7 billion in Electronic Arts, $1.2 billion stake in Take-Two Interactive, according to data from the Nasdaq Stock Market.

The Saudi expansion into gaming, however, has sparked criticism. Riot Games, which makes the popular online multiplayer game League of Legends, cancelled a partnership with Prince Mohammed's planned futuristic city Neom in 2020 after an outcry from gamers.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press

Newfoundland and Labrador

Colonial governments continue to destroy Innu land and traditional culture, says longtime activist and elder

Fri, February 17, 2023 

Innu elder Tshaukuesh Elizabeth Penashue in Shetshatshiu, Labrador, at the Inquiry into the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection System. 

(Heidi Atter/CBC - image credit)

Mistreatment of Innu people by colonial governments continues today, said an elder and activist who has fought for decades to protect the Innu's traditional culture and land in Labrador.

"I will start on how we have been treated by the white man, and the treatment is still ongoing today," said Tshaukuesh (Elizabeth) Penashue, on Thursday when she began her testimony at an inquiry examining how Innu children and families have been affected by the child protection system.

'When I'm gone, who's going to teach the children? The government takes away everything.' - Tshaukuesh Elizabeth Penashue

"You may have seen or heard on the news regarding the children that were found in the burial sites at residential school. Heard about an Innu woman in Quebec who was mistreated in the hospital in Quebec by this nurse or doctors. We are very saddened by this treatment from the police, nurses, and doctors who have treated [people] badly. Losing lives. It hurts me to see this, to witness the mistreatment, because I have kids too and grandchildren and that hurts when I think about it."

Child taken

Penashue also testified about seeing an Innu child taken from their family.

"Social workers are not doing their jobs because I have witnessed a child being taken away from their family. The social worker who took the child didn't get enough information about the family. That also hurts me to have witnessed it because of the wrong that the social worker did to that family. When that child was taken, immediately they wanted to go back home to their family. They said they wanted to go back to their mother."

Penashue also spoke about Innu life before it was influenced by colonial governments.

"Before the government broke our land, we had everything, everything. Water was clean, trees, rivers, animals, berries, medicine.... Why did the government come here to break our land?" she asked, speaking in English and fighting back tears.

"When I'm gone, who's going to teach the children? The government takes away everything."

Then testifying in Innu-aimun and translated into English, she said:

"Ever since the government has destroyed our land, where are we going to teach our next generation? Our children, the youth. There has been so much damage done. Dammed our rivers. Destroyed the land. When I do my walks on the land I take the youth with me to teach them about our way of life on the land ... the land is where we have survived for thousands and thousands of years," said Penashue.

Nalcor Energy

Penashue, 78, was born near Churchill Falls, Labrador, and moved with her community to Sheshatshiu in the 1960s. Land the Innu lived on, including traditional burial grounds, are now underwater in the area flooded to create a reservoir for the Churchill Falls hydroelectric project.

"I am not the only one who misses our way of life being Innu. I know there are still some elders in our communities who miss it too. Who miss seeing and hearing children who are well and healthy within their families."

Book describes protests

In 2019, Penashue published a book, Nitinikiau Innusi: I Keep the Land Alive, about her work to protect the Innu's land and traditional culture.

The book, which began as a diary written in Innu-aimun, describes her experiences protesting NATO's low-level flights and bomb testing on Innu land in the 1980s and 1990s. Those protests resulted in her and nine other women being arrested and jailed.

CBC

She has also protested the development of the Voisey's Bay nickel mine and the Muskrat Falls hydro-electric project on the lower Churchill River.

Penashue began testifying at the inquiry on Thursday and continued Friday.

Montana lawmaker: There's a religious right to abortion


Fri, February 17, 2023 



HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Abortion rights groups are challenging abortion bans in some states by arguing the bans — supported by certain religious principles — violate the religious rights of people with different beliefs.

Conservative Christians for decades have argued that life begins at conception and abortion should be illegal and 47 states have laws that allow health care workers to opt out of providing abortions if that violates their religious beliefs or morals.

In Montana, a state lawmaker who is an ordained Jewish rabbi argues religious freedom laws that protect health care workers' religious beliefs should also protect abortion rights for those who belong to religions that support such rights.

“It seems that both sides should be permitted to have equal protections for their religious conscience,” said Rep. Ed Stafman, a Democrat.

States have been creating their own abortion laws after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling last summer. Abortion laws in Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Utah and Wyoming have faced challenges on the basis of religious freedom, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. None of those cases have been resolved.

The Montana bill faces uncertain prospects in the state's Republican-controlled legislature, but Stafman noted that several members of the House Judiciary Committee that heard testimony on the bill on Friday are members of the Montana Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers whose key issues include religious freedom.

Montana's House Judiciary Committee, along with the House itself, have already passed a bill this session expanding the state law to allow health care workers to decline to participate in any medical procedures that violate their conscience or religious beliefs.

Stafman's bill does not say how the state would determine if religious protection should be granted, but health care facilities can ask for employees to submit in writing their religious or moral refusals to participate in abortions.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid form for those seeking an exemption from a required COVID-19 vaccine requires just a signature and no explanation. Under federal law, an individual can seek a religious exemption regardless of whether the religious beliefs, observances or practices are common or non-traditional and regardless of whether they are recognized by any organized religion.

Republicans on the committee questioned how far the proposed law could go in protecting actions claimed as religious beliefs, including whether it should protect infanticide or the killing of people who violate religious tenets.

“Do you admit then that a religious exemption for killing a child that has been born ... exists under your premise behind this bill?" Republican Rep. Lee Deming asked.

“No,” Stafman replied. “There's no religious exemption to kill a child that's been born under my bill."

There are limitations to religious protections, “when there is a very, very broad public consensus on morality like there is around polygamy and certainly around murder,” Stafman said.

“In this case, the case of abortion, there certainly is no consensus,” he said. Polls show society is divided, as are different religious communities, he said.

Some religious groups, including the Roman Catholic Church, Assemblies of God, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Southern Baptist Convention, oppose abortion rights, with few to no exceptions, according the Pew Research Center.

The Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Methodist Church support abortion rights, with some limits. Conservative and Reform Judaism, the Presbyterian Church, Unitarian Universalist and the United Church of Christ support abortion rights with few or no limits, Pew said.

Islam, Buddhism, the National Baptist Convention and Orthodox Judaism hold no clear position on the procedure.

Judaism has a tremendous respect for life, Stafman said, and it differentiates between a woman as a life and a fetus as a potential life.

Stafman said he respects the religious beliefs of those who came to testify against his bill, quoting the Bible and scripture.

“Those are sincere religious beliefs, but so are mine,” he said.

Amy Beth Hanson, The Associated Press

EPA moves to restore rule on mercury from power plants

Fri, February 17, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday reaffirmed the basis for a rule that requires “significant reductions” in mercury and other harmful pollutants from power plants, reversing a move late in former President Donald Trump's administration to roll back emissions standards.

The EPA said it found it “appropriate and necessary” to regulate emissions of toxic air pollution under the Clean Air Act, setting the stage to restore protections enacted when President Barack Obama's EPA issued the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.

“For years, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards have protected the health of American communities nationwide, especially children, low-income communities, and communities of color who often and unjustly live near power plants,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. “This finding ensures the continuation of these critical, life-saving protections while advancing President Biden’s commitment to making science-based decisions and protecting the health and wellbeing of all people and all communities.”

The move is in line with a larger push by the EPA under President Joe Biden to restore the numerous federal environmental protections that were rolled back by Trump's administration, like reinstating rigorous environmental reviews for large infrastructure projects, protecting thousands of waterways and preserving endangered species.

Coal-fired power plants are the largest single manmade source of mercury pollutants, which enter the food chain through fish and other items that people consume. Mercury can affect the nervous system and kidneys; the World Health Organization says fetuses are especially vulnerable to birth defects via exposure in a mother’s womb.

“The concern largely is the brain development of young children ... and also (it) has effects on adults that contributes to heart attacks. It’s a highly toxic substance,” Charles T. Driscoll, an environmental scientist at Syracuse University who studies mercury pollution, said.

Public health professionals and environmentalists praised the restoration of the Obama-era rule, saying it protects Americans, especially children, from some of the most dangerous forms of air pollution. But many also said the administration could go further by requiring even greater reductions in toxic air pollution from power plants.

“Retaining these protections is a critical first step; we now urge EPA to strengthen them. We need stronger standards to protect all communities from these pollutants, especially those living near power plants," said Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

Michael Panfil, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, also urged the Biden administration to strengthen the protections, but said the restoration of the rule “should be a relief to all Americans.”

Most coal-fired power plants have already made upgrades to their facilities required when the regulation first went into effect in 2012. The Edison Electric Institute, a lobbying group that represents investor-owned electric companies, thanked the EPA for restoring the rule.

“EEI’s member companies, and the electric power industry collectively, have invested more than $18 billion to install pollution control technologies to meet these standards,” Tom Kuhn, president of the lobbying firm, said in a statement. “Since 2010, our industry has reduced its mercury emissions by more than 91 percent, and we have seen a significant change in our nation’s energy mix, which is getting cleaner and cleaner every day.”

Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the announcement resolves whether the EPA should regulate mercury and other toxic air pollution.

“When the previous administration chose to remove the legal underpinnings of the MATS rule, they ignored the irrefutable science on the devastating impacts that mercury has on children’s health,” Carper said.

But Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the committee's ranking Republican, warned the rule is part of Biden's goal “to shut down American coal plants.”

“We’ve experienced the damage these regulations have done across our country, including in West Virginia," Capito said.
___

Follow Drew Costley on Twitter: @drewcostley.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By Drew Costley, The Associated Press

REWILDING

Sask. foundation holds reverse auction to turn cropland into natural prairie

Fri, February 17, 2023

The Saskatchewan Stock Growers Foundation is holding a reverse auction that could see landowners turn part of their cropland back into grassland, like what's shown here.

 (B.Gjetvaj / branimirphoto.ca - image credit)

An agricultural organization is looking to restore cropland into the natural prairie one bid at a time.

The Saskatchewan Stock Growers Foundation, a charity and land trust that, among other things, aims to conserve agricultural lands, is holding a reverse auction where landowners will bid to receive money to spend on turning part of their land back into grassland.

"Not only the grasslands are disappearing, but the wildlife that depends on them are disappearing as well," said Tom Harrison, while on CBC Radio's Morning Edition Thursday.

Past studies and other conservation organizations estimate about 20 per cent — possibly less — of natural grassland remains in Saskatchewan.

The ecosystem has a significant role to play, said Carolyn Gaudet, manager of the Saskatchewan Prairie Conservation Action Plan, a partnership that aims to preserve the native prairie.

Grasslands are biodiverse, with many organisms relying on the ecosystem. They adapt to extreme weather, such as droughts and floods, and can absorb carbon dioxide particles from the air and store them underground, making them significant in the fight against climate change, she said.

Trees, too, absorb and store carbon dioxide, she noted, but the particles are emitted into the air again when trees are cut down.

"A lot of people take it for granted," Gaudet said.

The stock growers foundation received $2 million to hold its reverse auction.

Landowners can estimate what it will cost them to restore the land and maintain it in perennial cover for at least 30 years, according to the foundation's website.

The foundation will source and buy the native seed blend required, but the landowner must cover all other costs, such as land preparation, weeds and finances, the website says.

LISTEN| Sask. Stock Growers Foundation runs reverse auction for grasslands conservation:

The foundation will consult with interested landowners about their bids. Successful landowners can get money for the project.

"You've got to think very carefully about a whole number of things," Harrison said, such as why such a project is important to the individual, how it could affect their operations, what financial support they'll need and how it will affect their operation's bottom line.

Harrison, who farms north of Regina, said he started a similar project about 20 years ago. He's been able to use the plot of land for his operations; it now serves as a pasture.

"It's actually worked out quite well for me," he said.

Historically, it has been difficult to interest land owners in converting their cropland into grassland because of the cost and time it takes until it's useable, Gaudet said.

But the foundation's initiative hasn't been attempted yet, she said, and it could establish the actual cost of doing such work and help estimate how much extra carbon can be stored, compared to cropland.

"It'll be an experiment to see if this is the right way to do it," Gaudet said.

The first round of bidding is open until the end of March.

CRYPTOZOOLOGY

Tracking down the elusive Bigfoot

Fri, February 17, 2023 

Depending on who you ask, Bigfoot, an ape-like creature that legend says stalks the forests of North America, is either a good subject for a story told around a campfire but not to be taken seriously, a real phenomenon that science has yet to explain, or something between the two.

Also known as sasquatch, Bigfoot has become a larger-than-life icon that is echoed in other parts of the world. In the southeastern United States, legends of the Skunk ape about, while in Asia, Bigfoot is know as the Almas, Yeren and Yeti. In Australia, a similar creature of folklore is called the Yowie.

Southwestern Manitoba is no stranger to accounts of the notoriously elusive Bigfoot, who is usually described as a large, muscular, bipedal creature covered in black, dark brown or dark red fur, standing as tall as 4.6 metres.

A website called the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) has archives of many Bigfoot sightings across North America. In western Manitoba, the mystical creature is said to have been seen near Brandon, Kenton, Rivers and Rossburn.

One such account, which took place on July 29, 2010 along a dirt road near Brandon, tells the story of an unnamed man who went to check his rural mailbox and decided to take a back road home. Noticing strange tracks on the road, he got out of his truck and was flabbergasted at what he saw — footprints that measured larger than any human foot, showing a seven-foot stride, that appeared to emerge from a field, walk along the edge of the road for nearly a mile and then return to the same field.

In 2000, a possible sasquatch was seen by an unnamed farmer near Highway 21 just outside Kenton, 72 kilometres northwest of Brandon. The farmer claimed his cattle had been spooked on several occasions, and he finally saw what was scaring them one night when he was approaching his uncle’s farm with his tractor. At first, he thought the figure he saw was his uncle walking on the road away from him. As he got closer, the creature turned toward him and walked across the road. Moments later, the farmer’s uncle appeared. The farmer describes the creature he saw as being almost as tall as a tree — at least eight feet — and a gait that didn’t seem human.

One sasquatch-like creature was seen walking across a grain field near Rivers, 41 km northwest of Brandon, in August 1996. The anonymous witness said he was returning home one evening just after dusk had fallen when he saw a shape in the ditch on the west side of the highway. He stopped to check if it was a horse from a nearby farm, but quickly observed a fast-moving creature that was covered in dark brown hair and walking upright.

North of Rossburn, 146 km northwest of Brandon, a suspected sasquatch was seen in summer in the mid-1960s by a group of people picking saskatoon berries behind their garden. The witness claimed the creature made a second appearance shortly after.

On social media, several people claimed to have seen a Bigfoot-like creature near McCreary, 137 km northeast of Brandon, and Killarney, 99 km southeast of Brandon. Whether these sightings, and the ones described on the BFRO website, are legitimate or not is up for interpretation.

But for Ryan Willis, president of the Trent University Sasquatch Society (TUSS) in Peterborough, Ont., Bigfoot is more than just a folk tale — it’s a creature that is just as real as it is elusive.

Willis is the host of a new television show coming to the Wild TV Network this fall called “Sasquatch University.” The show seeks to dive into the phenomenon of Bigfoot in Canada, and is looking for witnesses and people with evidence in Westman and all over Canada to come forward and share their stories.

Having had a keen interest in sasquatch since he was 11 or 12 years old, Willis said similar television programs to the one he is hosting are what sparked his passion for the bipedal creature.

“I was watching Animal Planet one night and I stumbled across the show ‘Finding Bigfoot,’ which aired for a while,” he said. “And then as I got older, I would just research the subject all the time and go into the woods when I could.”

Trent University Sasquatch Society is the first, and currently the biggest, Bigfoot research group in Canada, Willis said. Members speak with Bigfoot researchers from all over the world, and their main goal is to educate students about sasquatch.

The group, consisting of around 200 members, has faced ridicule in the past over its interest in the famed cryptid, but it hasn’t dampened their enthusiasm, Willis said.

“We take it very seriously. We speak with a lot of academics and a lot of scientists,” he said. “I think a lot of people don’t know how many scientists and PhDs are doing work on this and are very involved in the subject.”

Bigfoot research has evolved far beyond grainy videos of people in monkey suits in the ’60s, thanks to groups like his, Willis said. The next step toward finding concrete evidence for Bigfoot’s existence is the new television show, which he said his entire society is excited about, since it’ll afford them opportunities to travel even more extensively throughout Canada in pursuit of the legendary creature.

“We’re doing a hunt for witnesses right now. We already have a bunch that have got in touch with us in the past, but … we’re always looking for more. We’re trying to find the most interesting witnesses we can and followup with them.”

Once they know where they want to travel to shoot episodes of the show, the group will get down to work in actually trying to find Bigfoot, using traditional methods such as tree knocking and howling as well as more cutting-edge, scientific ways of drawing out sasquatch.

“We want to try using drones and certain game cameras, and different things like that.”

Although Willis, the cast and crew are all passionate about finding real evidence of Bigfoot, that doesn’t mean they don’t get a little spooked from time to time when they’re out in the woods doing their field work. From dealing with bears and porcupines to the possibility of seeing the focus of their research itself, things can get a little nerve-wracking, Willis said.

“We just try to focus on the task at hand and not get too freaked out, but there are sometimes where it does get pretty freaky out there. It’s cold and dark, and that does kind of get to you a bit … but it’s all worth it, to us, for sure.”

Anyone who would like to come forward with their own tales of Bigfoot encounters are encouraged to visit sasquatchuniversity.com, which has links to all of the society’s social media channels.

Willis said he has heard some interesting Bigfoot lore coming out of Manitoba and hopes that enough witnesses will come forward to warrant a trip to Westman in the near future, all in hopes of pursuing North America’s most elusive — and captivating — cryptid.

Miranda Leybourne, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Brandon Sun