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Local States of Emergency Declared in Southern Alberta

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5 minute read

The Blood Tribe, Cardston County and Municipal District of Pincher Creek have declared local states of emergency in response to southern Alberta wildfire conditions.

Current situation at 1:30 PM Sept. 12. Click for up-to-date information.

Current situation

  • Overnight the fire grew by 50 per cent to roughly 20,000 hectares. A mandatory evacuation was issued on Sept. 11 at 10:15 p.m. for a section of the Municipal District of Pincher Creek from South Highway 505 to Waterton Lakes National Park and Castle Mountain Resort. An estimated 150 residences have been affected. A reception centre has been set up at the Vertical Church at 1200 Ken Thornton Blvd. in Pincher Creek. Residents evacuating should go to the reception centre or call 403-904-8016 to register.
  • A mandatory evacuation was issued on Sept. 11 at 11:44 p.m. for the area of Cardston County between Waterton Lakes National Park and Hwy 800 from the U.S. border north to Twp Rd 40. More than 50 homes have been affected. Residents who are leaving and need accommodation should call 403-653-4977.
  • A mandatory evacuation was issued on Sept. 12 for areas of the Blood Tribe in Zone 1, including Fish Creek, St. Paul’s area extending north to Russell and Many Fingers residences. An evacuation advisory has been issued for Zone 3, including north of Russell and Many Fingers residences extending to Lavern and little Chicago area. An estimated 180 people have been affected. A reception centre has been set up in the Standoff multipurpose building, and residents are asked to register at the multipurpose building even if they do not intend to stay there.
  • Approximately 500 people are under a mandatory evacuation order from their homes in Waterton townsite, parts of Cardston Country, parts of the MD of Pincher Creek and parts of the Blood Reserve.
  • In the town of Waterton, roughly 60 structural firefighters from neighbouring municipalities, including the City of Calgary, are working to protect the structures within the perimeter of the town. Unfortunately structures outside the perimeter have been lost, including the Visitor Centre and several out buildings.
  • Crews are working hard to protect houses and other structures there and our latest information is that they have been successful.
  • Firefighters working within Waterton will be relieved today by a second team coming in and will continue their work with 17 fire trucks on site.
  • Within the park itself, there are roughly 135 firefighters, nine Alberta airtankers and 14 helicopters.
  • Alberta Forestry has an additional 125 firefighters and 23 helicopters on standby, waiting for direction from the incident command team.

Wildfire activity

  • The Kenow wildfire has spread outside Waterton Lakes National Park into Cardston County and the Municipal District of Pincher Creek.  
  • High winds, high temperatures and low humidity are forecast for Tuesday, Sept. 12, and intense fire behaviour continues to be anticipated.

Waterton townsite

  • Structural protection units and resources are in place in the Waterton townsite and have worked through the night providing protection.
  • The Office of the Fire Commissioner is coordinating additional resources to be brought in today to replenish and supplement firefighting efforts from Coalhurst, Didsbury, Milk River, Olds, Ponoka and fire protection companies.

Park closures

  • Payne Lake Provincial Recreation Area, 25 km west of Cardston, has been closed (new).
  • A complete list of park closures is available at www.emergency.alberta.ca.

Travel

  • The following highways are closed to the public due to the current wildfire situation:
    • Highway 5 east of Waterton Lakes National Park to west of Cardston
    • Highway 6 north of Waterton Lakes National Park to Twin Butte
  • The following highways within Waterton Lakes National Park are closed to the public due to the current wildfire situation:
    • Highway 5
    • Highway 6
    • Chief Mountain border crossing
  • The following highways are closed to the public, with the exception of permit holders, due to the current wildfire situation:
    • Highway 532, west of Highway 22
    • Highway 520, east of Highway 22 for approximately 12 km
    • Highway 774, from Highway 507 to Castle Provincial Park
  • Check 511 Alberta for up-to-date travel information

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International

UK Supreme Court rules ‘woman’ means biological female

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Susan Smith (L) and Marion Calder, directors of ‘For Women Scotland’ cheer as they leave the Supreme Court on April 16, 2025, in London, England after winning their appeal in defense of biological reality

From LifeSiteNews

By Michael Haynes, Snr. Vatican Correspondent

The U.K. Supreme Court has issued a ruling stating that “woman” in law refers to a biological female, and that transgender “women” are not female in the eyes of the law.

In a unanimous verdict, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled today that legally transgender “women” are not women, since a woman is legally defined by “biological sex.”

Published April 16, the Supreme Court’s 88-page verdict was handed down on the case of Women Scotland Ltd (Appellant) v. The Scottish Ministers (Respondent). The ruling marks the end of a battle of many years between the Scottish government and women’s right campaigners who sought to oppose the government’s promotion of transgender ideology.

In 2018, the Scottish government issued a decision to allow the definition of “woman” to include men who assume their gender to be female, opening the door to allowing so-called “transgender” individuals to identify as women.

This guidance was challenged by women’s rights campaigners, arguing that a woman should be defined in line with biological sex, and in 2022 the Scottish government was forced to change its definition after the court found that such a move was outside the government’s “legislative competence.”

Given this, the government issued new guidance which sought to cover both aspects: saying that biological women are women, but also that men with a “gender recognition certificate” (GRC) are also considered women. A GRC is given to people who identify as the opposite sex and who have had medical or surgical interventions in an attempt to “reassign” their gender.

Women Scotland Ltd appealed this new guidance. At first it was rejected by inner courts, but upon their taking the matter to the Supreme Court in March last year, the nation’s highest judicial body took up the case.

Today, with the ruling issued against transgender ideology, women’s campaigners are welcoming the news as a win for women’s safety.

“A thing of beauty,” praised Lois McLatchie Miller from the Alliance Defending Freedom legal group.

“Victory,” commented Charlie Bently-Astor, a prominent campaigner for biological reality against the transgender movement, after she nearly underwent surgical transition herself at a younger age.

“After 15 years of insanity, the U.K. Supreme Court has ruled that men who say they are ‘trans women’ are not women,” wrote leader of the Christian political movement David Kurten.

Leader of the Conservative Party – the opposition to the current Labour government – Kemi Badenoch welcomed the court’s ruling, writing that “saying ‘trans women are women’ was never true in fact and now isn’t true in law, either.”

 

Others lamented the fact that the debate even was taking place, let alone having gone to the Supreme Court.

“What a parody we live in,” commented Reform Party candidate Joseph Robertson.

Rupert Lowe MP – who has risen to new prominence in recent weeks for his outspoken condemnation of the immigration and rape gang crisis – wrote, “Absolute madness that we’re even debating what a woman is – it’s a biological fact. No amount of woke howling will ever change that.”

However, the Supreme Court did not wish to get pulled into siding with certain arguments, with Lord Hodge of the tribunal stating that “we counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another. It is not.”

The debate has taken center stage in the U.K. in recent years, not least for the role played by the current Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Starmer himself has become notorious throughout the nation for his contradictions and inability to answer the question of what a woman is, having flip-flopped on saying that a woman can have a penis, due to his support for the transgender movement.

At the time of going to press, neither Starmer nor his deputy Angela Rayner issued a statement about the Supreme Court ruling. There has been no statement issued from the Scottish government either, nor from the office of the first minister.

Transgender activists have expectedly condemned the ruling as “a disgusting attack on trans rights.” One leading transgender campaigner individual told Sky News, “I am gutted to see the judgement from the Supreme Court which ends 20 years of understanding that transgender people with a GRC are able to be, for all intents and purposes, legally recognized as our true genders.”

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International

Tulsi Gabbard tells Trump she has ‘evidence’ voting machines are ‘vulnerable to hackers’

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Stephen Kokx

Last month, Trump signed an executive order directing federal election-related funds to be conditioned on states “complying with the integrity measures set forth by Federal law, including the requirement that states use the national mail voter registration form that will now require proof of citizenship.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced during a Cabinet meeting last week at the White House that voting machines across the U.S. are not secure.

“We have evidence of how these electronic voting systems have been vulnerable to hackers for a very long time, and vulnerable to exploitation to manipulate the results of the votes being cast,” she said about a half hour into the meeting.

 

Gabbard’s remarks confirm what millions of Americans have long suspected about elections across the U.S.

President Donald Trump himself has maintained skepticism of current voting methods and has called for paper ballots to prevent cheating.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was one of only a few voices to publicly argue that voting machines, like those run by Dominion and Smartmatic which were used during the 2020 presidential election, were compromised. GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene took to X to praise the businessman after Gabbard made her remarks.

“Mike Lindell along with MANY others vindicated!!” she exclaimed on X. “Another conspiracy theory being proven right! Guess what Democrats already knew this and publicly talked about it in 2019! And then lied and lied and lied!!!”

 

Last month, Trump signed an executive order directing federal election-related funds to be conditioned on states “complying with the integrity measures set forth by Federal law, including the requirement that states use the national mail voter registration form that will now require proof of citizenship.”

Congress has also taken steps to ensure election integrity by voting on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (also known as the SAVE Act) last week. Dubbed “controversial” by the media and left-wing groups, the common sense bill would require persons to show proof of citizenship before voting. The House approved the measure 220-208 with four Democrats in support. The bill now heads to the Senate where it will face an uphill battle for the required 60 votes. Republicans currently have a 53 seat majority.

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