There hasn’t been a sports story so intriguing to me as the Kahwi Leonard alleged salary cap circumvention scandal that’s played out across the last year.

For those who haven’t been following, Leonard, a star with the Los Angeles Clippers, was paid millions of dollars by team sponsors for “endorsement” deals, where he wasn’t required to do anything.

He was a “celebrity endorser” for a tree planting company, but did not make any appearances, plant any trees or even make any social media posts about the company, despite being paid more money than Robert Downey Jr., Drake Leonardo DiCaprio and other top stars combined.

An NBA investigation following initial investigative reporting from Pablo Torre, who has done 14 podcast episodes and counting on the story, confirmed the reports and NBA commissioner Adam Silver penalized the team by taking away five first round draft picks, fining ownership and suspending several high ranking members of the Clippers.

In August, 99.7 percent of Dynacare laboratory professionals voted in favour of a strike mandate.

On Sept. 8, they went on strike. On the same day, they were ordered back to work without a fair deal after the government appealed to the labour board to have them declared essential workers.

It is disappointing to see the government siding with this American, for-profit company over Manitoban workers. Dynacare and the union agreed in March that no essential services agreement was needed, and that agreement was documented with the Labour Board at the time. The government waited seven months and intervened at the last minute of negotiations, effectively removing the only leverage these underpaid workers had in negotiations with an American-owned, for-profit company.

Dynacare has had a monopoly on outpatient lab services in Manitoba since 2017 and has no competition to incentivize them to pay their workers fairly. The government gave them another contract in 2025, extending their monopoly for five years.

Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. The disaster killed 2,977 people. When I visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York City I walked around its twin reflecting pools. Inscribed on the bronze wall surrounding the pools are the names of every one of the people that ultimately lost their life that day. I did research on the victims and discovered they were firefighters and stewardesses, government employees, tourists, business travelers, engineers, paramedics, teachers and students on field trips. So many wonderful contributing members of society whose productive lives ended in an instant.

I was a Winnipeg Free Press columnist in 2001 and in my article that September week I talked about how my Grade 4 students at Mitchell School provided a great distraction on Sept. 11. When reports of the attacks hit the news, I was in the school staff room, but a decision was made not to inform the children immediately. So when I went back to my classroom we continued with our normal routine of math problems, story reading, singing and lunch. The world was in crisis but the class hamster still needed feeding, one of my students threw up, another needed a hug, and two girls had a fight that required me to mediate. My students reminded me that no matter what happens life goes on.

In the long days following, I remember how full of curiosity and worry the children were about the 9/11 event. I had to set aside time each morning to answer their questions and listen to their concerns. Many of them were watching the images of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers over and over because there simply wasn’t anything else on television.

The Hanover School Division mandated a moment of silence in schools on Sept. 14. When I asked my students whom they might think about during that moment, many said children. They were sad for the children who had died on the planes and in the destroyed buildings and for the children who had lost parents and grandparents.

Perhaps the name Maia Johnson is familiar to you. If not, it should be. Ms. Johnson now holds one of the most senior positions in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), having been appointed to the newly created position of chief operating officer (COO) in July. Remarkably, this appointment received little public attention despite the responsibility that comes with it. The lack of public scrutiny is concerning, and Canadians deserve to know more.

Never before has this position existed within the PMO. That in itself is not necessarily cause for concern. What is noteworthy is who has been appointed to fill it. Ms. Johnson is new to Canada. She is an American with ties to prominent American Democrat political campaigns. According to the Toronto Sun, Johnson was associated with the campaigns of former First Lady Hillary Clinton, former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris. Of those connections, her role in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign appears to be the most publicly documented. These facts raise legitimate questions about the creation of this powerful new position, the role Ms. Johnson is expected to play within the PMO, and the process by which she was selected.

Further, given the current state of Canada-U.S. relations, she is seemingly not the candidate best positioned for negotiations with President Trump.

Yet, she remains directly involved in Canada’s relationship with the United States. Johnson, the Democrat operative advising Prime Minister Carney on Canada-U.S. trade, campaigned against Donald Trump in several presidential races. Let that sink in.