Editorials - May 1, 2026
Ice, ice baby
Huron County’s own Iceculture is no stranger to high-profile events and ice installations for celebrity clients around the globe, but last week’s massive ice sculpture for rapper Drake’s album release announcement not only went viral, it had a side of notoriety with it.
Toronto fans got a little overexcited, whether it was for Drake’s long-awaited Iceman album, or the monumental ice tower out of crystal clear ice blocks created as a backdrop for his announcement, it’s hard to say. The crowd took to the installation with sledgehammers, pickaxes and blowtorches and set fires atop of it in an attempt to get the date of the release (which is May 15, for those of you needing that information).
Finally, in the interest of public safety, Toronto Fire Services hosed down the giant structure that consisted of 3,500 blocks of ice, each weighing nearly 300 pounds and carted into the city on 20 transport trucks. The structure itself was erected on private property, so needed no permit, but perhaps city officials needed to know about the stunt to be better prepared to handle the crowds. While the spokesperson for Iceculture was sad to see the installation taken down prematurely, she understood the importance of safety.
To paraphrase Sir Walter Scott, “We build statues out of ice, and weep to see them melt.”’. – DS
For the children
Manitoba - perhaps the most forward-thinking province in Canada, largely due to the leadership of Premier Wab Kinew - has announced a ban on social media and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for kids, and while a timeline has yet to be determined, it will likely begin in schools, says Tracy Schmidt, the province’s Minister of Education.
The discussion around the use of social media and, more recently, AI by young people is ongoing. Much of it has been somewhat medical in nature - delving into the uncertainty around the long-term impacts of a life lived on social media and interactions with AI during key stages of brain development and foundational social learning. However, in his address on the issue, Kinew invoked the darker side of social media and AI, pointing the finger at the companies behind them and how social media is designed, in many ways, to contribute to depression and anxiety, how it profits off of its users and how it can aid in illegal, violent behaviour and serve as an avenue for human trafficking. “We owe the next generation of Manitobans a simple promise: freedom. Freedom from the surveillance capitalism that is destroying the free world. Freedom from screen time. Freedom to be a kid,” Kinew said.
For too long (and in many ways, still), the internet was viewed as a lawless wild west that could, in no way, be governed. Certain strides have been made to hold accountable those who do wrong online. Next comes social media. Again, some work has been done, but plenty remains. As for AI, it’s moving faster than even some of its developers anticipated and keeping its progress in check seems like a fool’s errand.
With so much still unknown, protecting our children, the people we vowed to protect and who are too young to make informed decisions on this themselves, is the least we can do. Kinew has shown leadership on this issue. We can only hope that more premiers follow suit. – SL
The world is a stage
Something very curious is happening in alternative comedy. The laughs have wandered outside and into public life.
In Bisbee, Arizona, Doug Stanhope, a profane and iconoclastic comedian, is encouraging others to follow his use of public comment time at council meetings as stage time. It is an odd image, comics stepping up to the lectern where bylaws usually dominate, but the idea has a certain logic. Democracy is a room full of strangers and comedians are experts at addressing exactly that. British Columbia resident Zach Galifianakis now hosts a gardening show that is gentle, funny and unexpectedly useful, though not without his signature awkwardness peeking through the petunias. His refrain, “the future is agrarian,” lands less like a punchline and more like a thesis. The result is a quietly engaging program that teaches as it entertains, trading pure discomfort for something more reflective, but still punctuated by those familiar, off-kilter moments. Tim Heidecker is taking a sharper route. His move to take over Infowars turns satire into accountability. By repurposing a platform tied to Alex Jones, Heidecker is using humour to expose and dismantle misinformation in a way straight reporting often cannot.
Alternative comedy has never aimed for universal appeal and some of the sharper edges can provoke as much irritation as laughter. Yet that tension is part of what makes this moment interesting. These performers are not sanding themselves down for broader approval. They are expanding the places where comedy can exist.
What unites these efforts is a willingness to treat humour as something more than entertainment. The stage has not disappeared, but it is no longer the only venue that matters. Comedy has slipped its old boundaries and is now testing how far its voice can carry. – SBS