Weekly News Recap: February 27, 2026

Weekly News Recap: February 27, 2026

Brian Reeve got life-transforming treatment for his OCD at a Toronto hospital, and now he's making a huge donation to help other patients. (Talk Shop Media)

Everything you want is on the other side of fear. -- Jack Cornfield

SOME GOOD NEWS

  • VIDEO: Teacher Wins $1M Prize for Turning India’s Slums Into Hundreds of Open-Air Classrooms (Good News Network) #TeachersAreSuperheroes "An Indian teacher who has established more than 800 learning centers across India for children who have never attended school has been named the winner of the $1 million Global Teacher Prize from GEMS Education. Located in over 100 slums and villages, Rouble Nagi’s classrooms offer safe, inspiring spaces to help overcome the challenging conditions shaped by poverty—child labour, early marriage, irregular attendance, and a lack of infrastructure."

  • Osaka Stunned by Anonymous Gift of Gold Bars to Fix Aging Water Pipes (Good News Network) #Wow (Can he visit Calgary?) "Have you seen the price of gold recently? In the Japanese city of Osaka, one man obviously did, and decided to cash in for the sake of his community. The mayor and his staff were staggered when they discovered an anonymous resident had presented 21 kilograms of gold bars to the city as a contribution to fix Osaka’s dilapidated municipal water piping."

  • How this London teen brings kindness and smiles to children battling illness (CBC) LONDON STORY Love this! "Ayona Jaswal had surgery on her liver a mere two hours after she was born. It was the beginning of a lifetime of health issues that led to frequent hospitalizations. Now 15 years old and attending high school, there’s one thing she understands better than most: how challenging — and how boring — it can be for a kid to feel stuck in a hospital bed. 'I know how hard it is, not just for the child, but also for the family to see their child going through that,' said Jaswal, a student at A.B. Lucas Secondary School in London."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

  1. Individual donors provide only a small slice of university research funding – but Jeffrey Epstein’s ties with academics show why screening matters (The Conversation) Similar story in Canada. "Funding to support university research comes from a variety of different sources. Most university research funding – approximately 53%-55% of that support – comes from the federal government, like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. About 8% of total funding comes from a number of private foundations and nonprofits, like the American Cancer Society."

  2. VIDEO: ‘Canada would not exist without them’: New book spotlights Treaties (CTV) CANADIAN STORY We are ALL treaty people. "In modern day, understanding or accessing the history of Treaties can be difficult. University of Alberta professor and co-author of ‘Talk Treaty To Me’ Crystal Gail Fraser joined CTV Your Morning Edmonton with more on how she’s trying to change that."

  3. VIDEO: Domestic violence cost Calgary nearly $60M a year, say U of C researchers (CBC) CALGARY STORY More prevention and intervention please. "A University of Calgary researcher says shifting domestic violence response to prevention and early intervention could reduce costs by nearly half."

  4. Four years after Russia invaded Ukraine, philanthropy is dwindling, even as needs grow (Jewish Philanthropy) "Four years into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Jewish human service organizations are struggling to maintain funding. 'The Jewish community stepped up philanthropically in very significant ways, but four years in, it’s hard to continue to maintain that interest and attention,' Dyonna Ginsburg, CEO of OLAM, a network of Jewish organizations and individuals working in international aid, told eJewishPhilanthropy."

  5. $1 trillion in philanthropy is reshaping how innovation gets funded (Khaleej Times) "Global philanthropic flows now exceed the world’s combined humanitarian and development aid threefold, with growing share directed at research, science, and technology"

  6. Glenbow Museum’s CEO stepping down to lead Royal Ontario Museum (City News) CALGARY STORY Thank you for all you have done Nicholas, best wishes at the ROM! "The president and CEO of Calgary’s Glenbow Museum is stepping down to become the director of the Royal Ontario Museum. Nicholas Bell, who joined in 2019, will finish his tenure at the end of May [...] Originally from Vancouver, Bell handled the Glenbow’s current strategic plan, along with establishing the JR Shaw Free Admission Endowment, making the Glenbow the first major museum in Canada to provide free admission for all. The Calgary museum says Bell also oversaw the launch of the Glenbow Reimagined revitalization project — worth $205 million — which is expected to reopen in 2027."

  7. VIDEO: 'Heading for disaster': Canadian Olympic medallist Dubreuil denounces lack of amateur athlete funding (CBC) CANADIAN STORY We need to fix this. Our athletes and our country deserves better funding for our athletes. "Canadian long track speed skater Laurent Dubreuil is sounding the alarm about the lack of funding for Canadian amateur sports and the consequences it could have on the country's success at the Winter Olympics going forward. The Quebec native did not hide his bitterness [...] coming off a bronze medal in the 500 metres during the Milan-Cortina Games."

  8. Can nature benefit Canada's economy? New report says parks contribute billions in taxes, wages (CBC) CANADIAN STORY Thank you for this CPAWS! "Canada’s plan to more than double nature protection is creating thousands of jobs, a new report says, with the potential for billions of dollars more in tourism and hospitality revenues if the government continues funding conservation. The report from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) says that conserved and protected areas — provincial and national parks and local conservation areas — were responsible for 150,000 jobs in the 2023-24 fiscal year. Two-thirds of those jobs were directly related to conservation works and running those parks, while one-third were in related fields that supported those areas, such as wilderness outfitters and tourism."

  9. ‘Energy Transition’ Is the Story We Tell While Fossil Fuels Keep Expanding (The Environment) "1865, British economist William Stanley Jevons published 'The Coal Question,' warning that Britain would soon exhaust its coal reserves. His concern, of course, wasn’t environmental; it was economic and strategic. Britain’s industrial dominance depended on coal, and Jevons feared the nation would lose its competitive edge once supplies ran dry. But something unexpected happened. As steam engines became more efficient, coal consumption didn’t fall — it surged."

  10. Sask. drone maker Draganfly has high hopes for Ottawa’s defence spending spree (CBC) SASKATCHEWAN STORY "Draganfly Inc. has manufactured aerial drones in Saskatoon for more than 25 years. The drones are used around the world in search and rescue operations, agriculture and in the U.S. military, but the company still struggled to get the attention of Canada’s Department of National Defence."

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

  1. VIDEO: NEVER Skip Stretching After Workout! (DO THIS to Avoid Regret & Pain) (YouTube) Stretching and mobility are my fitness life.

  2. Earth’s Most Beautiful Stones (Moss & Fog) Geology can be gorgeous.

  3. INTERACTIVE: Aeris — Real-Time 3D Flight Tracking (Aeris) This is very cool (and useful). You can search your city using the gear setting icon.

  4. INTERACTIVE: What Makes People Proud of Their Country? (Pew Research) This is a nice read. For Canada: 'Canadians most commonly say they are proud of the people in their country (28%) as well as its diversity and multiculturalism (27%). They often emphasize the tolerant, kind and welcoming nature of Canada and describe it as a multicultural “mosaic." '

  5. 9 Simple Exercises Will Improve Your Balance in Just a Few Minutes (SELF) Like stretching only more wobbly.

  6. The 7-Word Note System That Transforms Books Into Life Upgrades (Books Are Our Superpower) This is a neat and compact idea to better capture what you read.

  7. i: The Number That Was Invented, Mocked, and Eventually Ran the World (Vagelis Plevris) #NerdAlert Yep, this is something I loved in engineering school. And it is so cool to see that while originally dismissed, it is now a fundamental way of looking at our world.

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

  1. 'Incredible gift' — Local family donates $1 million to new Windsor-Essex regional hospital (Windsor Star) WINDSOR STORY "Members of a Windsor-area family have donated $1 million to the new Fancsy Family Hospital — the latest of several seven-figure donations to the regional acute care facility. The joint donation comes from two branches of the Collavino family, including cousins Loris, Paolo, and Renzo, who were “motivated by personal experiences with heart and lung health concerns.” "

  2. Hall Family Foundation donates $10 million to Okanagan College (Vernon Matters) OKANAGAN STORY #Boom "Okanagan College has received a historic $10-million donation from the Hall Family Foundation, the largest gift in the colleges history and the largest ever made to a public college in British Columbia. The donation will establish the Hall School of Business and Entrepreneurship at Okanagan College."

  3. VIDEO: Toronto man donates $10 million to expand OCD treatment centre that changed his life (CBC) TORONTO STORY Thanks to ViTreo Senior Associate Matthew Burns for sharing this story. "Brian Reeve hit a breaking point seven years ago, when the rituals — from repeatedly walking in and out of doors to inserting and removing his contact lenses until everything felt 'just right' — had become so consuming that he could no longer manage his obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) on his own. After years of searching for effective care, he received treatment in the OCD program in 2019 at the Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. Now in remission, Reeve, 69, a lawyer and private equity investor, says the program was a 'game-changer' and a 'life reset,' and has donated $10 million to the facility."

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

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