In Brief

Mulcair at News Café

FEDERAL Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair will be making a visit to the Free Press News Café today for a live Q & A at 4 p.m.

Mulcair is coming to Winnipeg as part of the Opposition's new grassroots community campaign to mobilize political supporters.

Mulcair, along with NDP deputy leader and environment critic Megan Leslie, MP Pat Martin and party president Rebecca Blaikie are leading a daylong event at the Sir John Franklin Community Centre Gym at 1 Franklin Rd.

The SJFCC event runs from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with training for campaign skills to start at 1:30 p.m.

Our interview with Mulcair will be live-streamed here starting at 4 p.m. The public is also welcome to come to the News Café at 237 McDermot Ave.

Satellite to help prof

A University of Winnipeg geography professor is going to have a much better look at wetlands in and around Morris and Churchill, thanks to radar images taken by a Canadian satellite.

Prof. Joni Storie has been awarded a SOAR Education Grant from the Canadian Space Agency and MacDonald, Detwiller and Associates Ltd. It will provide her with 20 RADARSAT-2 satellite images worth $100,000. Ten images will be ordered for 2013 and another 10 for 2014. The satellite will be programmed to obtain the specific images requested.

Information obtained from the images will be used to address two long-term research projects that can help meet the province's surface water management goal to map and monitor wetlands, U of W officials said.

The purpose of the first project is to map potential sites for temporary wetlands in southern Manitoba around the Morris area. The images will show where the soils continue to have high moisture after the spring flooding has receded, making it too wet to plant crops.

The second study will use satellite images to map the extent of coastal wetlands of Hudson Bay near Churchill. This will help determine if the coastline is changing year to year, an issue that is a challenge with sea-level rise (climate change) as well as land rise (isostatic rebound).

"Radar imagery has been used by the military for decades but is fairly new in terms of civilian and commercial applications," said Storie. "The advantage of radar images is the longer wavelength can see through clouds. This is especially useful in spring when we have floods and in regions that have lots of cloud cover."

Storie and her students hope to present preliminary findings in late August 2013 at the 34th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing in Victoria, B.C.

Discover food science

THE University of Manitoba is inviting the public to the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre on Monday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Visitors will have the opportunity to churn cream into butter, bake some barley bannock, watch bees make honey and strap on some snowshoes to walk through the deep snow.

The centre is located 15 minutes south of Winnipeg on Highway 75 (Pembina Highway) at the U of M's Glenlea Research Station. The centre's hands-on exhibits lead visitors from the farmer's wheat field to the kitchen table and include a peek into a day in the life of a pig.

Admission costs and travel directions can be found at www.ffdc.ca.

New science lab at school

MILES Macdonell Collegiate in East Kildonan unveiled a new state-of-the-art science lab Friday, courtesy of a $25-million provincial program.

The high school is the first to benefit from the Science Lab Renewal Program, receiving $240,000. Miles Mac also received $25,000 for special equipment for more complex experiments.

The fund is for updating science classrooms across Manitoba. Premier Greg Selinger was on hand for the opening Friday.

Man stabbed in robbery

A man suffered stab wounds to his upper body in a strong-arm robbery in a Westminister Avenue parking lot Friday morning.

Police said two men approached the victim in 600 block of Westminster Avenue and an altercation ensued.

The man, 28, was taken to hospital in unstable condition but has been upgraded to stable.

One of the suspects is described as Caucasian, 20-30 years of age, 5-6 to 5-7 in height, 170 pounds with a medium build.

The other suspect is described as Caucasian with darker skin, mid-20s, 5-6 to 5-7 in height, 150 pounds with short dark hair and a skinny build.

Driver hurt in crash

THE driver of a Honda Civic westbound on Roblin Boulevard on Thursday afternoon lost control and struck a tree, police said Friday.

The single-vehicle collision occurred at about 3:30 p.m. in the 5000 block of Roblin. The 25-year-old driver was taken to hospital in unstable condition but has since been upgraded to stable.

-- staff

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 16, 2013 B3