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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
The most-commented stories of 2011
Anti-abortion demonstrators hold a vigil outside of the Women's Hospital on Notre Dame Avenue this past fall. (BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS )
In a sea of year-end lists, here's one with special relevance for commenters: the stories that generated the most feedback from you.
Below, you'll find our top 10 most-commented stories on the Free Press website for 2011. These stories, with topics ranging from Air Canada's now-infamous memo about downtown safety and First Nations flood evacuees to a man hit with a speeding ticket while hustling his pregnant wife to hospital, represent some of the issues and events readers felt the most passionately about during the past year.
Interestingly, there's not a Jet among them -- though hockey will be making an appearance in our upcoming list of 2011's most-read stories.
Nick Martin's account of a school planning to offer community service credit to students taking part in anti-abortion vigils set a record as our website's most-commented story ever, topping 1,000 comments. Most commenters opposed the school's plans, though some spirited defenders did weigh in.
The tale of Justice Murray Sinclair's talk to a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives brunch crowd showed the divisions that often emerge on stories involving First Nations issues.
Sinclair's account of the damaging effects of the residential school system, and the violence he believed could erupt as a result, generated an enormous range of responses: from vitriolic to empathetic, deeply critical to strongly supportive. Amid the often sharp exchanges were some thoughtful conversations between people with very different views.
1. Anti-abortion vigil earns credit - 1002 comments
Christ the King School plans to give community service credit to students who walk in daily anti-abortion vigils outside the Health Sciences Centre.
2. Sinclair warns of violent uprising - 759 comments
At a speaking engagement, Justice Murray Sinclair says Canadian society must heal the damage caused by the Indian residential school system or deal with the violence he believed would be unleashed against it.
3. Manslaughter charge dropped - 741 comments
Justice officials drop a manslaughter case against a Winnipeg shopkeeper accused of killing a customer caught stealing a can of luncheon meat.
4. He saves baby's life, gets huge ticket - 676 comments
Hitting the gas pedal in a rush to get his pregnant and soon-to-deliver wife to hospital leads to a suspended license and speeding ticket for a Winnipeg father.
5. Aboriginals will suffer: experts - 601 comments
Legal experts fear the Harper government's push for mandatory minimum sentences will unfairly target aboriginals.
6. National chief demands Air Canada apologize, build bridges with aboriginals - 551 comments
Canada's national aboriginal leader says Air Canada should apologize for an internal memo that he says victimized flood evacuees by linking them to increased crime in downtown Winnipeg.
7. Downtown shop throws in towel - 541 comments
Discreet Boutique closes its doors after more than three decades, the shop's owner blaming harassment from downtown panhandlers for his business's demise.
8. Chiefs decry 'racist' Air Canada memo - 536 comments
Air Canada apologizes for what the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs called a racist internal memo suggesting First Nations residents displaced by floods were making downtown Winnipeg dangerous.
9. First Nations defy province - 525 comments
Dakota First Nations face a showdown with the provincial government by pledging to sell cigarettes at half price and opening an unlicensed gaming centre, part of a bid to speed up legal efforts to obtain treaty status.
10. Prison sentence destroys family - 521 comments
A Winnipeg man who'd been hitchhiking across America is sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for stabbing a homeless man to death in California.
And we'd be remiss in not mentioning our most popular commenters of 2011, based on thumbs-up and thumbs-down rankings. Take a bow, gottawonder, East of Eden and Gack! You're the top 3.
You can see the full list on the left-hand column of our main page: scroll down to the day's top comment, then click the tab beside it that says "most popular commenters."
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About Lindsey Wiebe
Lindsey Wiebe grew up on a farm in rural Manitoba. She took her first run at getting hired by the Free Press at the age of 13: after winning a prize in a creative writing contest sponsored by the paper, she figured she’d be a shoo-in.
It’s not clear whether that letter ever reached the newsroom, but Lindsey got her foot in the door a few years later, joining the Free Press in 2006 after graduating from the University of Winnipeg and Red River College joint communications program. She’s gone on to work as a news and environmental reporter, surviving on local produce in a Manitoba November for a series on the local food movement, reporting from Afghanistan on the role of Canadian soldiers in reconstruction efforts, and heading up the Green Page, a monthly sustainability series. Most recently, Lindsey took up the newly-created role of social media reporter at the (also newly-created) Winnipeg Free Press News Café. She also works as a weekend online editor, setting aside her love of Saturday morning garage sales to help keep this site current.
Lindsey’s previously worked as a weekend radio reporter and casual researcher for CBC Manitoba, a programming coordinator at a local writers’ association, and most recently, an English language assistant in a high school in France (the latter while on a leave of absense from the Free Press, or ‘année sabbatique,’ as she learned to call it.).
Lindsey’s writing interests range from the journalistic to the creative: she’s shared her poetry at events including the Winnipeg International Writers’ Festival, the Winnipeg New Music Festival, and Prairie Fire Wordfest, and was a former organizer and host of the long running Speaking Crow poetry series and the now-defunct Winnipeg Poetry House.
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