--Third NewsWatch--

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(BKW-WNBA-Toronto)

Toronto has been awarded the W-N-B-A's first franchise outside the United States -- and the league's 14th overall.

The expansion team is set to begin play in 2026.

The team will be owned by the Larry Tanenbaum-led Kilmer Sports Ventures.

Tanenbaum also is the chairman and a minority owner of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns several Toronto sports franchises, including the N-B-A's Raptors and the Maple Leafs of the N-H-L. (3)

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(Prison-Assault-Pickton-Custody)

Many questions are swirling in the head of a corrections-reform expert about Sunday's major assault on convicted serial killer Robert Pickton.

The B-C pig farmer was attacked at Quebec's maximum-security Port-Cartier prison where he was serving time for murdering six of the 26 women he was accused of killing.

Pickton remains hospitalized in Quebec City with life-threatening injuries

Howard Sapers, who used to serve as Canada's correctional investigator, wants to know how the attack happened and the conditions at the facility at the time.

He said it is difficult to know if the Pickton assault was spontaneous and if it was random or targeted. (3)

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(Mba-Remains)

The Winnipeg trial of admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki (skih-BITS'-kee) is learning about him through his own words.

The Crown has entered into evidence some pen-pal letters he wrote last year while awaiting his trial for killing four Indigenous women back in 2022.

In the letters, Skibicki laments the unfair persecution faced by white people and discusses his plan to write a post-apocalyptic zombie novel.

Skibicki has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

He admits to killing the women, but his lawyers argue he's not criminally responsible because of mental illness. (3)

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(Lost-Canadians)

Immigration Minister Marc Miller is expected to table legislation today extending citizenship to some children born outside the country.

In 2009, the Conservative government changed the law so that Canadian parents who were born abroad could not pass down their citizenship unless their child was born in Canada.

Amendments to the Citizenship Act in 1977 and 2009 also stripped thousands of people who were born abroad of their Canadian citizenship.

Those who've not had access to citizenship rights as a result of the amendments are known as "Lost Canadians."

Last year, an Ontario court found the system unconstitutionally creates two classes of Canadians, and gave Ottawa until June 19th to fix the problem. (3)

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(NS-Black-Prosperity-Index)

A new report tracking the economic prosperity of the African Nova Scotian community finds Black men in the province face a significant wage gap.

After tax, the first-of-its-kind report found Black men in Nova Scotia earned nearly nine-thousand-dollars less per year compared to the province's general male population.

Irvine Carvery, co-chair of the report's advisory council, says the report aims to provide a measuring tool that advocacy groups can use to bring about change. (3)

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(US-Election-2024-Trump)

Former U-S president Donald Trump will campaign in one of the most Democratic counties in American today, holding a rally in the South Bronx in New York as he tries to woo minority voters.

Trump will address supporters in a public park in a borough that is among the city's most diverse and most impoverished.

The rally comes during a pause in Trump's criminal hush-money trial after both sides rested their cases Tuesday. (3)

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(NewsWatch by Karen Rebot)

The Canadian Press