In the news today: Statistics Canada to release April job numbers

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

Statistics Canada to release April job numbers

Statistics Canada will release its latest look at the country’s job market for April this morning.

A poll provided by LSEG Data & Analytics shows economists on average expect a gain of 2,500 jobs in the month.

Economists also predict the unemployment rate will rise by a tenth of a point to 6.8 per cent.

The reading follows the March report that saw a loss of 33,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rise a tenth of a percentage point to 6.7 per cent.

It was the biggest job loss since January 2022 as the uncertainty caused by U.S. tariffs took their toll on the economy.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

Robert Prevost, first pope from US in history of the Catholic Church, takes the name Leo XIV

Catholic cardinals broke with tradition Thursday and elected the first U.S. pope, making Chicago-born missionary Robert Prevost the 267th pontiff to lead the Catholic Church in a moment of global turmoil and conflict.

Prevost, a 69-year-old member of the Augustinian religious order who spent his career ministering in Peru, took the name Leo XIV.

He wore the traditional red cape and trappings of the papacy — a cape that Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013 — suggesting a return to some degree of tradition after Francis’ unorthodox pontificate. But in naming himself Leo, the new pope could also have wanted to signal a strong line of continuity: Brother Leo was the 13th century friar who was a great companion to St. Francis of Assisi, the late pope’s namesake.

“Together, we must try to find out how to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, establishes dialogue, that’s always open to receive — like on this piazza with open arms — to be able to receive everybody that needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love,” Leo said in near-perfect Italian.

Prevost had been a leading candidate for the papacy, but there had long been a taboo against a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical power the country already wields. But Prevost was seemingly eligible because he’s also a Peruvian citizen and had lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as bishop, and cardinals may have thought the 21st century world order could handle a U.S.-born pope.

Hockey players’ lawyers cross-examine complainant

A woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team is expected to face more questions from defence lawyers for the players in court today.

The woman, who cannot be identified under a publication ban, has been on the stand since last Friday in the trial of Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote.

All five have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault, and McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.

The woman has testified that she was naked and afraid when men she didn’t know started coming into the hotel room where she’d just had sex with McLeod in June 2018.

She described going on “autopilot” and feeling like she was watching herself from outside her body as she engaged in sexual acts with the men.

Documentary details fall of former broadcaster

There was a time back in the 1990s when Steve Vogelsang was known as the “sexiest man in Winnipeg.”

A former sportscaster, college instructor and executive with True North Sports and Entertainment, Vogelsang helped several Winnipeggers shape their careers.

So when the Saskatoon native was arrested in 2017 for sticking up banks in Saskatchewan and Alberta, his once made-for-TV persona became rife with static.

“It raises a lot of questions,” said Charlie Siskel, a director and producer for “The Sexiest Man in Winnipeg,” a new documentary detailing Vogelsang’s rise and fall that releases Friday on Amazon’s Prime Video.

Vogelsang was sentenced in 2019 to six and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to a string of bank robberies in Saskatchewan and Alberta between July and October 2017.

Grey whale mesmerizes Metro Vancouver

A grey whale known as Little Patch has been mesmerizing onlookers in the waters off of Vancouver for weeks, sparking a sense of connection as it stops to feed in the busy region before migrating northward.

Cari Siebrits first went to the seawall along the shores of West Vancouver, B.C., on April 9 in hopes of seeing Little Patch, and arrived to find the whale so close to shore she could hear it breathing as it surfaced.

“It’s hard to describe the excitement of seeing a whale that close. It feels a little bit like being a kid at Christmas,” the North Vancouver resident said.

Siebrits said she immediately called her parents to meet her at the seawall, and the family sat for hours watching the whale as the sun set, surrounded by crowds of people doing the same.

Jessica Scott, senior manager of the Ocean Wise whales initiative, said Vancouver’s harbour typically sees a couple of grey whales each year, so the extended visit by Little Patch is quite rare.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2025.

The Canadian Press