Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 1, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba Expedited Delivery on In-Stock Items dlanoDcM dlanoR House Charities ® Free In-Home Design Assistance 204-783-8500 1425 Ellice Avenue Monday to Friday 10AM – 6PM Saturday 10AM – 6PM Sunday 11AM – 5PM www.la-z-boy.com/winnipeg Super Weekend Sale LIMITED TIME ONLY! ENDS AUGUST 5 TH OPEN HOLIDAY MONDAY 11AM - 5PM SAVE 20 % OFF* STOREWIDE Come in and find your new favourite lazy spot. *Some exceptions apply, see store for details WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● C3 THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2024 Sinéad O’Connor’s cause of death revealed as COPD, asthma I RISH singer-songwriter and activist Sinéad O’Connor, who took the name Shuhada’ Sadaqat later in life, died last year of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, according to a report citing her death certificate. O’Connor, the Nothing Compares 2 U singer who famous- ly tore up a picture of the pope during a 1992 appearance on Saturday Night Live, died July 26, 2023. She was 56. The Irish Independent reported that the singer had also suffered a respiratory tract infection and that O’Connor’s ex-husband John Reynolds registered her death last week. The certificate gives the cause of death as “exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma together with low grade lower respiratory tract infection,” according to the Irish Independent. O’Connor was found unresponsive at her South East London home and her death was not being treated as suspicious, the Metropolitan Police confirmed to the Los Angeles Times last July. Earlier this year, the London Inner South Coroner’s Court confirmed that O’Connor died of natural causes, sparking confusion about the circumstances of her death, since the phrase is often associated with people who die of old age. “It has been said that death is considered to have arisen from natural causes if the evidence shows that it is prob- able (that is, more likely than not) that the cause of death was the result of a naturally occurring disease process running its course, ” the Coroners’ Society of England & Wales said in a January statement shared with People. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease “is a chronic inflammatory lung disease that causes obstructed airflow from the lungs,” the Mayo Clinic says. People who live with COPD, often caused by long-term ALEXANDRA DEL ROSARIO exposure to irritating gases or particulate matter such as cigarette smoke, are at increased risk for developing heart disease, lung cancer and other conditions. Weeks after her death, O’Connor was interred in her coastal hometown of Bray, Ireland, after a townwide cele- bration of life that included scores of fans singing along to her cover of the Prince-composed Nothing Compares 2 U as they followed her flower-filled hearse. The National Wax Museum Plus in Dublin will also memorialize O’Connor with a wax figure — but not without some more work. The museum faced public backlash last week over its take on the All Apologies singer, which O’Connor’s brother John slammed as inappropriate, ac- cording to the BBC. “It looked nothing like her and I thought it was hideous,” he reportedly told Irish radio program Liveline last week. The museum addressed the statue controversy in a Friday statement and vowed to “create a more accurate presentation.” “We are committed to creating a new wax figure that better reflects Sinéad O’Connor’s true spirit and iconic image,” it said in a statement. “Our team of skilled artists will begin this project imme- diately, ensuring that every detail is meticulously crafted to celebrate her legacy appropriately.” — Los Angeles Times PAUL FAITH/AFP FILES Sinéad O’Connor’s funeral in Bray, Ireland featured fans singing Nothing Compares 2 U. ARTS ● LIFE I ENTERTAINMENT Washington sues StubHub for deceptive fees on tickets LINDSAY WHITEHURST WASHINGTON — The attorney general for Washington, D.C., sued StubHub on Wednesday, accusing the ticket resale platform of advertising deceptively low prices and then ramping up prices with extra fees. The practice known as “drip pricing” violates consumer protection laws in the nation’s capital, Attorney General Brian Schwalb said. “StubHub intentionally hides the true price to boost prof- its at its customers’ expense,” he said in a statement. The company said it is disappointed to be targeted, maintaining its practices are consistent with the law and competing companies as well as broader industry norms. “We strongly support federal and state solutions that enhance existing laws to empower consumers, such as requiring all-in pricing uniformly across platforms,” the company said in a statement. The lawsuit, meanwhile, says StubHub hides mandatory “fulfillment and service” fees until the end of a lengthy online purchasing process that often requires more than a dozen pages to complete as a countdown timer creates a sense of urgency. That makes it nearly impossible for buyers to know the true cost of a ticket and compare to find the best price, Schwalb said. Fees vary widely and can total more than 40 per cent of the advertised ticket price, the lawsuit alleges. StubHub, which is based in New York, is one of the world’s largest resale platforms for tickets to sports, con- certs and other live events. Sally Greenberg, CEO of the non-profit advocacy group National Consumers League, applauded the lawsuit. “Hidden fees in the ticketing industry have truly gotten out of control. The price that is advertised is the price that we should pay — full stop,” she said. Ticket fees were also part of a sweeping antitrust lawsuit the Justice Department filed against Ticketmaster and its parent company in May. StubHub used to advertise the “all-in” cost of a ticket about a decade ago, but changed after finding that people are more likely to buy tickets at higher prices with the “drip pricing” model, he said. Washington residents’ per-capita spending on live enter- tainment outpaces that of many other major U.S. cities and since 2015, StubHub has sold nearly five million tickets in Washington and reaped about US$118 million in fees, the suit states. The lawsuit seeks damages and to block the pricing prac- tices. Schwalb settled another lawsuit last year with the Washington Commanders over fans’ season ticket deposit money. — The Associated Press Investigation launched into Ticketmaster breach GATINEAU, Que. - The Privacy Commissioner of Canada says it has launched an investigation into Ticketmaster Canada following a major data breach that involved the personal information of millions of people worldwide. The agency says it launched the investigation in re- sponse to a complaint and will assess Ticketmaster’s compliance with federal private-sector privacy law. Ticketmaster, owned by U.S.-based Live Nation Entertainment Inc., notified customers in early July that “an unauthorized third party” snagged informa- tion from a cloud database. The ticket seller said the accessed data could have included customers’ names, basic contact informa- tion and payment card information such as encrypt- ed credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates. Privacy Commissioner of Canada Philippe Dufres- ne says the investigation will help the agency un- derstand why the cyber incident happened and what must be done to prevent it from happening again. Dufresne says data breaches have surged over the last decade and have increased in both their scale and complexity. — The Canadian Press ‘Hidden fees in the ticketing industry have truly gotten out of control. The price that is advertised is the price that we should pay — full stop’ — Sally Greenberg, CEO of the non-profit advocacy group National Consumers League ;