TORONTO — Canadian Western Bank says it has delayed the release of its fourth quarter financial results without saying why. The bank, which was scheduled to release results Friday, says it will instead put them out in mid-December. CWB's shares fell almost 12 per cent in morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange and was still down almost five per cent by mid-afternoon. National Bank is currently working to buy CWB in a deal that's expected to close by the end of 2025. The takeover has shareholder and Competition Bureau approval, but still requires the go-ahead from Canada's banking regulator and the finance minister. The bank on Friday declared it had raised its quarterly dividend by three per cent from the previous quarter to 36 cents. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:CWB) The Canadian Press
Arkansas visits skidding Miami in battle of veteran coachesHUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Jonah Pierce had 20 points in Presbyterian's 67-42 win against Youngstown State on Friday night. Pierce added nine rebounds for the Blue Hose (4-3). Kory Mincy scored 12 points, shooting 5 for 11, including 2 for 5 from beyond the arc. Kobe Stewart had 11 points and finished 4 of 9 from the field. The Penguins (2-3) were led by Ty Harper, who posted 12 points. EJ Farmer added 10 points and three steals for Youngstown State. Nico Galette also had five points. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .His team is coming off a fourth-quarter collapse in the Grey Cup, is getting rather long in the tooth and has the usual long list of free agents to deal with. But while Blue Bombers GM Kyle Walters acknowledged he’s still dealing with a Cup hangover, he was drinking from a glass half-full in his season-ending session with the media on Tuesday. The reason for his optimism: he has more good players already under contract for next year, some of them young and only getting better. “So the idea of, ‘This is the end of the road, the team is in a free-fall downward,’ I don’t think is accurate,” Walters said. “We have a good group of guys and we were in a one-point game with 10 minutes left... before things went downhill. “With the young guys we have under contract that contributed, I’m feeling probably better now than in years past in regards to the transition to youth heading into next season.” Walters pointed to the receiving corps, with rookies Ontaria Wilson, Keric Wheatfall and Kevens Clercius – all with another year on their contracts – and the defensive line as areas that got an injection of promising youth this year. As for his aging vets, they all want to come back for another run at the 2025 Grey Cup, to be played in Winnipeg. The key ones already under contract include 36-year-old quarterback Zach Collaros, running back Brady Oliveira, receiver Nic Demski, defensive back Deatrick Nichols, centre Chris Kolankowski and kicker Sergio Castillo. Other mainstays, like D-lineman Willie Jefferson (33), O-linemen Stanley Bryant (38) and Pat Neufeld (35), have said they want to re-sign. Most of the rest could be up for grabs as free agents, come February. Some, like receiver Dalton Schoen, quarterback Chris Streveler and linebacker Adam Bighill, are coming off season-ending injuries, which may or may not affect their negotiating positions. “Nobody’s interested in taking pay cuts,” Walters said. “Every single agent and every single player at the very least would expect to come back for what they’ve made. Now, organizationally we may have a different view of, ‘At this point in your career we no longer see you at this price point, but we see you at this price point.’ And that’s when the fun starts, I guess.” The “fun” might include trying to re-sign a player or two before the calendar flips to 2025, using the dollars he managed to stay below the salary cap. “We’re going to carve out, to the cent, how much money we have just to use a signing bonus on somebody this year,” Walters said. It’s always a case of give and take: any raise Walters gives to one, he has to take away from another to stay within the cap. Someone like cornerback Tyrell Ford, among the league’s top ball hawks, is due for a significant pay bump. “When you’re a Canadian that’s starting at a traditional American position, your value is through the roof,” Walters said. “I expect him to be highly sought after in free agency, for sure, and deservedly so.” As another key part of the CFL’s stingiest secondary, fellow defensive back Evan Holm is another player in line for more. “Up here would be my No. 1 goal,” Holm told me as he cleaned out his locker last week. “And we have a baby due in March. Just seeing everyone else with their children around, the environment would be pretty fun. We’ll see.” As for the baby he’s nurtured for the last 10 years, Walters just wants to keep feeding the thing the same ingredients that have seen it develop into a perennial championship contender. Having the Grey Cup in their own back yard doesn’t change anything, the GM says. They’d be trying to get there if it was played in Timbuktu. “An organization shouldn’t say, ‘Because we’re hosting, we’re really going to give it our all this year.’ Because then the response from the players and coaches would be, ‘Well, why wouldn’t we do that every year?’” They’ve done it every year for the last five, usually by spending to the max. In a perfect world, Walters and O’Shea would also use next year to groom a successor to Collaros, while trying to get to another Grey Cup. But the CFL and its proliferation of one-year contracts is far from a perfect world. So they’ll wait to see what and who shakes from the quarterback tree. Arguably the biggest apple, Vernon Adams, went from B.C. to Calgary hours after Walters spoke to the media. “Can your young guys on your roster develop, or do you have to go out in free agency and potentially pay more for an experienced backup that you think can take over in the future?” Walters wondered aloud. “Those are challenging questions that we’ll have organizationally. But primary focus is putting a roster together to win the Grey Cup next year.” That work begins immediately. Even before the hangover fades completely. “You know, when you take a step back... of course, the last three final games were very frustrating,” Walters said of his team’s three-game Grey Cup losing streak. “And you can’t lump them all together. But going to five Grey Cups... we’ve got a good football team here. “I expect us to be good.” paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca X: @friesensunmedia
Trent Williams' wife, Sondra, says their son was stillborn
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The guy on the Philly sports talk radio station had something to say, and he started to vent about the perceived strained relationship between star quarterback Jalen Hurts and standout wide receiver A.J. Brown. Why weren’t these two Pro Bowl Eagles on the same page? Why had their personal and professional relationship changed even with Philadelphia enjoying tremendous success? It was football gossip usually ripe for a hot-take host or fed-up fan to stir up on the air — only in this instance, the temperature check came from inside the locker room. Normally respected team leader Brandon Graham, who is sidelined with a triceps injury, noted in a radio appearance that “ things have changed ” between Hurts and Brown in the wake of a stale passing game in last week’s win over Carolina. An apologetic Graham walked back his comments. Hurts and Brown both insisted their relationship was cool in front of media hordes more appropriate for the Super Bowl. As for the rest of the Eagles, they were ready to squash the so-called controversy. “We are moving on,” offensive lineman and Christmas song crooner Jordan Mailata said. “It is the Pittsburgh Steelers this week. Not the A.J. Brown and Jalen Show. It is the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s it.” Oh yeah, the Steelers! Lost in the brouhaha ignited in a Philly sports bar is the fact that sitting — and winning — on the western side of Pennsylvania are the Steelers (10-3). Unlike most matchups in series history, this one Sunday at the Linc comes with the tantalizing appeal of a potential Super Bowl preview. The Steelers have won seven of eight, and the Eagles (11-2) have won nine straight and could clinch the NFC East with a win and a Washington loss or tie. It's the first time the teams — among the original eight NFL teams — will play each other when they both have a double-digit win total. Both teams are in strong position for a playoff run — the Eagles led by Saquon Barkley and his pursuit of Eric Dickerson's NFL season rushing record; Russell Wilson and the soft-schedule Steelers atop the AFC North in large part thanks to six wins against teams that currently have losing records. “I do like playing really good people, I think there's growth in it,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “You've got to get the job done. But man, I think there's significant growth in pitting your collective talents and skills versus big-time opponents and they're certainly that.” Will the drama out of Philly this week affect the Eagles? They certainly don't think so and neither do the oddsmakers — the Eagles are 5 1/2-point favorites, per BetMGM. “What I’ve noticed about this football team is they’re so locked in and determined to get better each day,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “We don’t really want anyone else talking to us about anything other than the Pittsburgh Steelers.” Good luck with that, Coach. Maybe playing the Steelers on Sunday at home can snap the Eagles out of their offensive malaise. Hurts threw three TD passes to Brown in a 35-13 win in 2022. Barkley leads the NFL in rushing with 1,623 yards, 216 yards ahead of Baltimore’s Derrick Henry. He is averaging 124.8 yards per game. At that pace, and with one more game to play than Dickerson had, he would become the top single-season rusher in NFL history. He needs 483 yards over the final four games to top Dickerson’s 40-year-old record. Barkley is on pace for 2,122 yards, which would put him just 17 yards beyond Dickerson’s 2,105 in 1984. Barkley doesn’t need much of a reminder from his 2020 performance when, while playing for the New York Giants, he ran into a Pittsburgh defense that seemed reminiscent of its famed Steel Curtain. The Steelers held Barkley to 6 yards on 15 carries. The Steelers will have to find a way forward against the NFL’s toughest defense without wide receiver George Pickens, who will miss his second straight game with a hamstring injury. Pittsburgh survived last week against Cleveland, with Mike Williams and Scotty Miller — afterthoughts of late — coming off the bench to make an impact. While Tomlin believes “the strength of the pack is the pack,” the reality is the Steelers don’t have anyone who can stretch the field like Pickens, who leads the team in receptions (55) and yards (850) by a wide margin. It’s a challenge, but considering the way Wilson has spread the ball around — eight players caught passes against the Browns — he won’t lack for options. “Everybody in the receiver room has a different skill set, different strengths,” Calvin Austin III said. “The coaching staff knows that and they know how to put us in position to be able to show that.” The cross-state trip to Philadelphia, where the Steelers haven’t won in nearly 60 years, is the start of an 11-day stretch in which Pittsburgh faces three teams likely bound for the playoffs. While Tomlin is leaning into the “nameless, gray faces” mantra he uses for every opponent, his players know facing the Eagles, Ravens and Chiefs in such a short period is a litmus test for what’s to come in January. “That’s why I’m in the league, period,” linebacker Patrick Queen said. “When you sign up to play football, you want to play at the highest level. ... I love to play the game the right way. I think these next few games is going to show that and it starts with the Eagles.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflWhy ‘The Odyssey’ from Christopher Nolan is excitingThe problem wasn’t money for Democrats
RCMP are focused on a brown house at 8774 Highway 97, following an early morning assault. Loud bangs could be heard coming from the area. A window was broken by ERT as they approached the door. Officers can be heard yelling at the home, telling someone inside to surrender and that the place is surrounded. It’s unclear how many people are inside the home. Highway 97 is closed in both directions from Beaver Lake Road and Old Vernon Road due to a police incident. Kelowna and Lake Country RCMP along with the Southeast District’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) are currently investigating an assault from the early morning hours of Friday, Dec. 6. Vehicles are being turned around and motorists are asked to avoid the area. Commonwealth Road also appears to be blocked. RCMP are also focused on a trailer parked on the westside of the highway. After multiple witnesses reported more than 12 RCMP vehicles travelling at a high rate of speed northbound on Highway 97, residents living near Commonwealth Road are confirming a large police presence. The police incident appears to be focused around a home just off Highway 97. Several people took to social media to report dozens of armed RCMP in the area just after 12 p.m. Traffic is heavily backed up southbound on Highway 97. Multiple emergency crews are staging in the Jammery parking lot. Capital News has a reporter headed to the scene and will update with more information.
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