Record number of hail-damage claims could reach 40,000 after June storms: MPI

22,000 claims — almost all for hail damage and 80 per cent of them from Winnipeg — received as of Thursday morning.

Canada routs Qatar 6-0 for historic first win at FIFA World Cup

VANCOUVER - Add another moment to Canadian sports history.

Striker Jonathan David snapped a scoring drought by striking three goals to lead Canada to its first-ever FIFA World Cup victory with a 6-0 decision over Qatar Thursday before a boisterous sellout crowd at BC Place Stadium.

“It’s historical, obviously,” said the 26-year-old who had not found the back of the net in his four previous World Cup matches despite being Canada’s leading goal-scorer. “It’s our first win ever in World Cup, and to do it in this fashion was very good.”

Head coach Jesse Marsch said the win will be etched in Canadian’s minds, like Sidney Crosby’s golden goal at the 2010 Winter Olympics or Mike Weir winning the 2003 Masters.

Midfielder’s injury gives Canada a greater purpose to succeed

Some important questions needed answering in Canada’s second game of the 2026 World Cup. Well, consider them answered. And how.

Perhaps the most practical query involved striker Jonathan David, whose disappointing club season at Juventus seemed to seep into the national team’s Group B opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

After his early substitution in Toronto, would he start in Vancouver?

The answer: yes.

RCMP vacancy rate in Manitoba drops below 10 per cent after years of staff shortages

The RCMP has managed to tamp down a nagging vacancy rate across Manitoba that frustrated municipal leaders and rural residents who were tired of years of staffing shortages and the effect on safety.

Flooded-out Interlake farmers call for government action on neglected watershed drainage system

Guiding his side-by-side vehicle over a narrow trail separating hundreds of acres of flooded fields in this rural Manitoba municipality Thursday, local farmer Brian Boonstra said there is little hope of saving his crops.

Bringing remains on planes a real pain

Vincent Masse holds up a snack-size Ziploc containing ashes belonging to his late dog Balthazar.

While smugglers sometimes successfully whisk other bagged powders past airport security, this one barely made it through.

“The Halifax security were all going like this,” says Masse’s new friend Kerri Parnell, crossing her fingers. She means they were hoping that the airport’s new CT X-ray scanners for carry-on bags, installed at Canadian airports over the past couple of years, would not once again flag Balthazar’s remains.

That’s what they had done the day before, leading Masse to miss his flight — and costing him about $1,000 to rebook.

Jonathan Toews hanging up blades on storied career

Jonathan Toews is ready to hang up his blades. The Winnipegger has decided to retire, with a formal announcement scheduled for Friday morning at the Dakota community centre that was renamed to celebrate him.

For nimble nonagenarian, there’s been no looking back since exercise epiphany six decades ago

It’s been 46 years since Ray Elliott completed his first Manitoba Marathon but the spry-looking 91-year-old father of three, grandfather of four and great-grandfather of two remembers the occasion like it was yesterday.

Back then, the annual Father’s Day race ended at Winnipeg Stadium near Polo Park. Elliott vividly recalls turning right as he entered the venue and hearing a thunderous roar erupt from the thousands of onlookers who had packed the stands to encourage participants to the finish line.

“It was quite the experience being cheered on by a crowd that large and after witnessing that I got really serious about running, maybe because I wanted to recreate the moment again,” Elliott says, seated in his third-floor Henderson Highway condo, which overlooks a meandering section of the Red River.

Elliott’s marathon days are long gone. Still, he reserves time for physical activity of some sort, every single day. The former Great-West Life manager typically gets up at 5:45 a.m. to go for a brisk walk through his neighbourhood. Then, after he has breakfast with his wife Lillian at her personal care home next door to where he lives, he heads to the YMCA-YWCA to jog around the track for an hour or so. He also bikes, swims and golfs — last week he shot one stroke better than his age at Kildonan Golf Course — and in April set a new provincial record for men ages 90 to 94, when he bench-pressed 42.5 kilograms at a powerlifting competition held at Glenlawn Collegiate.

Kinew not swayed by PM’s support for silica sand mining project

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s high-profile support for a proposed silica sand mining project in Manitoba this week didn’t move the needle at all for Premier Wab Kinew.

“I work for the people of eastern Manitoba, not for the Davos crowd,” Kinew told a local radio station Thursday. “We’re going to continue to put the drinking water and the priorities of the people who live in this province first.”

Carney, attending a summit of G7 leaders in France Wednesday, issued a statement hailing an investment partnership between Sio Silica, a Canadian company, and Germany’s RCT Solutions on the contentious and not yet approved project that would extract sand from a large area in the RM of Springfield east of Winnipeg and turn it into solar panels. Area residents have expressed concern that the process could impact the aquifer that provides drinking water for thousands.

Sio Silica’s president issued a statement Wednesday saying the company is pleased to have its mining project recognized by the Carney government on the world stage.

Bomber great Murphy to be inducted into Ring of Honour

Cal Murphy was immortalized with a statue outside of the home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers back in 2017 and, next month, his name will be displayed inside the stadium next to fellow franchise greats.

The Bombers announced Thursday that the late Murphy is this year’s inductee into the team’s Ring of Honour. The longtime head coach and general manager, who died in 2012 at the age of 79, will be officially inducted on July 30 when the Bombers host the B.C. Lions.

“Cal was such an important part of the Blue Bombers for his many years with the club as a coach, a GM and a steadfast voice for Canadian football,” said Winnipeg Football Club president and CEO Wade Miller in a statement. “Strong-willed and passionate in his beliefs, he had his hand on the rudder during one of the most successful eras of Blue Bombers football.

“On behalf of the Winnipeg Football Club, I’m thrilled to see his name join the other icons in franchise history in the Ring of Honour.”