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'Goodbye to a good friend': Snowbirds' final show to be livestreamed today
Final Snowbirds air show to be livestreamed today
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Patrick Doyle
Members of the Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds aerial aerobatics team are set to perform their final air show Friday in Moose Jaw, Sask., before their decades-old Tutor jets head into retirement.
The RCAF is set to livestream the annual season home closer online at 2 p.m. ET on its Facebook page.
There will still be one more chance to see the CT-114 Tutors in action before they are sent to the airbase in Trenton, Ont., for disposal.
The Snowbirds are scheduled to perform a flyover at the Canadian Football League Grey Cup game in Calgary on Nov. 15.
Capt. Philip Rochon, public affairs officer for the Snowbirds, said it's a bittersweet time for the pilots who are saying farewell to the planes the team has flown for 55 years.
"It's like saying goodbye to a good friend," he said.
Rochon said the Snowbirds received an outpouring of support over the summer from Canadians across the country who shared memories of past shows and their encounters with an iconic "piece of Canadiana."
"At the same time, we're looking forward to the future with the new aircraft that was announced," he said. "That will come online hopefully in the next few years. We're looking forward to seeing what the next chapter of the Snowbirds will be."
Defence Minister David McGuinty announced in May that the old Tutors will be replaced eventually by the Swiss-made PC-21 Pilatus aircraft, known as the CT-157 Siskin II.
The RCAF is also acquiring those same aircraft for pilot training.
While the Snowbirds were formed in 1971, the air force obtained the Tutor jets in 1963.
The Snowbirds will go on a multi-year hiatus until the replacement aircraft are delivered and the team can be trained up on the new planes. That could take until the early 2030s but there's no set timeline.
The decision to ground the team came after planned upgrades to the Tutors' engines and escape systems meant to keep them in the air until 2030 encountered a range of problems, including parts obsolescence.
RCAF Commander Lt.-Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet told reporters at the AERO Gatineau-Ottawa air show last month that it's been "heartwarming" to see how Canadians have responded over the last season.
"The Snowbirds are so much more than just an air demonstration team, obviously, and it evokes so much emotion and we all have such fond strong memories," she said.
"I really can't overstate just how significant they are to Canadians and specifically to the RCAF. The idea that we'd have to take a pause was definitely not an easy one. However, the Tutor aircraft is 63 years old and it is time to move into the future and make sure that we're doing things for the right reasons."
She said the demonstration team has been focused solely on finishing the current season. Once that's done, she said, the RCAF can "build the right kind of plan" to ensure the pilots don't get rusty in the meantime.
"We're looking at things like, can we send an exchange into some of our allied teams, or obviously instructing and working with the PC-21 in Moose Jaw as an option," she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.
By Kyle Duggan | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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B.C.'s Eby says proposed Indigenous land transfer legislation is about saving money
B.C.'s Eby says land transfer proposal saves money
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby is defending draft plans by his previous government to limit the compensation of forest companies when land is transferred to First Nations.
Confidential documents published in the Northern Beat, an online publication, say Eby's government was planning to transfer about 400 parcels of Crown land to First Nations, while limiting compensation for companies with timber rights on the land.
Eby says the transfers reflect existing treaties and other commitments under the process of reconciliation, some of them dating back decades, and the proposed legislation was about reducing costs for taxpayers.
The documents say the current law requires the government to compensate forestry firms but "given ongoing fiscal constraints" that would create substantial barriers to completing land returns.
A spokesperson for the Eby campaign says the draft legislation would limit compensation, and if less than five per cent of the existing logging rights were transferred, those holders would not receive any compensation at all.
The briefing notes, dated Sept. 10, were revealed just days before the provincial election on Oct. 24.
The New Democrat platform doesn't mention the plans, while forest companies needed to sign non-disclosure agreements if they wanted to see them.
Eby says those types of agreements are standard practice, and he rejected suggestions of secrecy.
A spokesperson for the campaign says cabinet approved engagement with stakeholders in July but the proposal was draft, not final legislation.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2026.
By Wolfgang Depner | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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No release of toxicology results in deadly crash involving Saskatchewan Roughrider
No release of toxicology report in Rider crash
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kayle Neis
RCMP says the province's coroners service won't be releasing toxicology results from a deadly crash that involved Saskatchewan Roughrider Jayden Dalke.
Mounties say details contained in that report are considered personal health information.
Dalke, 30, from Leduc, Alta., and Bhishma Rajyaguru, 22, from Regina died earlier this summer on Highway 11 near the town of Lumsden.
RCMP has said Dalke was driving on the wrong side of a divided highway — with alcohol and cannabis in his SUV — when his vehicle slammed into the car Rajyaguru was driving.
They also said that a half-hour before the crash, northwest of Regina, the linebacker's SUV left a gas station with unpaid fuel.
Mounties say findings from a recent collision reconstruction analysis has confirmed those details.
"Further information disclosure will be limited as there will be no court process," RCMP said in a news release Thursday. "Investigators will never have the opportunity to speak with either vehicle occupant to find out what happened on July 18."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2026.
By Jeremy Simes | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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