Winnipeg Synagogue target of antisemitic graffiti

The president of Winnipeg’s oldest Jewish congregation hopes to share a message of unity, after an unknown individual vandalized the Shaarey Zedek synagogue with antisemitic graffiti this week.

“Hate against one group is hate against all of us,” Rena Secter Elbaze said, speaking to the Free Press on Saturday morning.

The incident, which was captured on video by security cameras, occurred at about 4:30 a.m. on Friday morning when a lone individual approached the synagogue, pulled out a can of spraypaint, and vandalized windows on the synagogue’s doors and part of the marble siding facing Wellington Crescent.

The graffiti included two swastikas, the word “hate,” and another word that may be an acronym, the meaning of which was not immediately clear. Synagogue maintenance staff discovered the graffiti when they arrived for work later that morning, and quickly scrubbed most of it clean.

‘Everything we predicted’: pipes burst for some Pimicikamak residents, sparking new worries after outage

Manitoba Hydro said all customers had power again as of 1:30 p.m. Friday after the phased return began Thursday, while Pimicikamak Chief David Monias expected some homes with water damage to be temporarily uninhabitable.

Giving pedestrians a head start on vehicles improves safety, has no effect on traffic, city finds

City staff are working to expand pedestrian head starts to locations further from the core.

Fewer than one in five Manitobans are sure they know fabricated online content when they see it: survey

When Weekly World News stories about a half-boy, half-bat lined supermarket checkout lanes in the 1990s, most consumers — including Probe Research partner Curtis Brown — could readily, easily and confidently identify the eye-grabbing tabloid reports as false.

“When it comes to (content generated by) AI, people have a bit less confidence,” says Brown. “Sometimes it’s very obviously so-called AI slop — like a historical figure talking about something contemporary. The last couple of months I’ve seen a lot of videos of JFK talking about what a fool his nephew is.”

Even if a quick Google search to note RFK Jr. was nine when his uncle was assassinated in 1963 — marking such videos as debris in an artificial intelligence mudslide — new media literacy polling conducted by Probe for the Free Press reveals that only 18 per cent of Manitobans feel very confident that they can identify whether video footage is “fake or AI-generated.”

Of the 1,000 Manitobans randomly surveyed by Probe between Nov. 25 and Dec. 10, 13 per cent believed that they’d personally shared video, images or text on social media that they didn’t realize was fake.

Canada thumps Slovakia 7-1 at world juniors to book semifinal date with Czechia

MINNEAPOLIS - Cole Reschny tuned into the world junior hockey championship with his family growing up.

The Canadian forward got the ball rolling in a must-win game Friday — and his country never looked back.

Reschny sparked a five-goal barrage in the first period to lead a 7-1 drubbing of Slovakia in the quarterfinals of the men's under-20 showcase. 

"For as long as I can remember (it was) me, my brothers, my dad at home at Christmas watching this tournament," said the Calgary Flames prospect. "It's so special. It's crazy to think that it's my age group already, my year."

Chirp heard around Manitoba: RM sells building for $1 to cricket farm entrepreneur

One dollar doesn’t stretch very far these days, but apparently it’s enough to buy a business in Benito.

Just ask Stuart Matheson, 27, who recently purchased a former café for less than most people pay for coffee.

He plans to open a cricket farm and pet supply store in the rural hamlet, which is located roughly 30 kilometres southwest of Swan River, near the Saskatchewan border.

“I do think there is a big potential for insect farming in general. It’s pretty niche right now, but when things scale up I think it will be a pretty competitive industry,” Matheson said Friday.

Family from the Democratic Republic of Congo navigates chilly firsts alongside IRCOM supports

All Clever Ganza wants to do this winter is build a snowman.

He’s not yet had the chance, as it hasn’t been the right kind of snow — although to the eight-year-old, all snow is snow.

It’s his second winter in Winnipeg after arriving in Canada with his parents and younger brother Travor, 5, in December 2024.

Clever has acclimatized pretty quickly.

Seven internationally trained docs sign to practise in Manitoba

BRANDON — Seven internationally trained doctors have signed return-of-service agreements requiring them to work in six rural communities in southwestern Manitoba due to a shortage of family physicians.

The doctors will practise in Killarney, Minnedosa, Ste. Rose, Russell, Rossburn and Shoal Lake starting in the fall, said Tamara Kemp-Boulet, physician recruitment and retention co-ordinator for Prairie Mountain Health.

The agreement commits them to staying in the community for four years.

Husband and wife Shamsudeen and Olamide Usman are among those who were recruited by Prairie Mountain Health through the University of Manitoba Medical Licensure Program for International Medical Graduates.

Residents riled by proposed four-storey zoning

A proposed housing and retail development on Corydon Avenue has drawn opposition from nearby residents, but the project’s architect says there will be more to come.

The four-storey development would replace a single-storey building at 1460 Corydon Ave., between Queenston and Niagara streets.

The building originally housed a TD Bank branch.

On Monday, councillors on the city centre community committee will be asked to rezone the site to allow the proposed building with a bakery and cafe on the main floor and a 20-unit residential development on the upper three floors.