News Briefs: Winterlude 2026 kicks off this weekend
Local
CBC Ottawa: The capital region’s annual winter festival kicks off Friday night.
Winterlude 2026’s opening weekend will see the return of ice carving at Confederation Park, the addition of a ferris wheel at Snowflake Kingdom in Gatineau and other winter-themed activities across the region.
This year’s winter festival runs from Jan. 30 to Feb. 16.
National
CBC: Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will address the Conservative Party of Canada Friday evening in Calgary at the party’s annual convention.
The speech will be followed by a vote that will determine his future as the leader of the Official Opposition.
Poilievre is scheduled to take the stage at 8:30 p.m. ET.
International
Toronto Star: The U.S. Justice Department released a new batch of records from the Epstein files on Friday.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that more than three million pages of documents will be released, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.
Epstein was a convicted sex offender accused of running an international sex-trafficking ring with his longtime confidante and girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. He died by suicide in a New York prison cell in August 2019.
