Patient activists seek movement in diagnosis, treatment of FND or functional neurological disorder

Functional neurological disorder (FND) is often described as an invisible illness.

The condition affects how the brain processes information and communicates with the body, resulting in a wide range of physical and neurological symptoms that differ from person to person. Unlike structural brain issues — such as tumours, strokes or lesions — functional neurological disorder (FND) symptoms don’t show up in conventional diagnostic testing and imaging.

This common, gendered disorder traces its roots to hysteria; yet, centuries later, its causes and mechanisms remain largely unknown.

Winnipeg academic Jen Sebring is among those working to make this invisible illness more visible in Canada.

L’Intelligence artificielle vue par les professeurs de l’Université de Saint-Boniface

Depuis son introduction dans le monde universitaire, l’intelligence artificielle générative a soulevé plusieurs questions éthiques sur son utilisation dans un contexte d’éducation formelle.

La Liberté a rencontré trois enseignants-chercheurs de l’Université de Saint-Boniface pour comprendre les défis auxquels doit faire face le monde universitaire dans l’utilisation de cette nouvelle technologie.

Pour Pierre Minkala-Ntadi, enseignant en littérature et en langue française à l’Université de Saint-Boniface, l’IA est “un artefact qui peut faciliter la réflexion,” mais précise qu’elle doit être admise comme “une aide, et non un moyen en soi.”

“La problématique de l’innovation technologique a toujours été la même, quand une nouvelle technologie se met en route, beaucoup adoptent une posture prophétique qui invite à croire que celle-ci va résoudre tous les problèmes du monde,” souligne l’enseignant-chercheur qui rappelle que “la technologie s’insère dans des processus et des pratiques sociales déjà en cours.”

Destination Ontario touts restaurants, historic villa where ‘Heated Rivalry’ filmed

TORONTO - Destination Ontario is encouraging fans of "Heated Rivalry" to relive their favourite moments from the Crave series by visiting filming locations across the province.

The tourism body shared on social media a list of six spots that serve as the backdrop to the lustful hockey show.

Most of the locations listed are in Hamilton, including FirstOntario Concert Hall, the set for the fictional Major League Hockey Awards; Dundurn Castle, which stands in for Moscow in the show; and the restaurants Ciao Bella and Le Tambour Tavern. 

Destination Ontario also lists Joni Restaurant in Toronto, which is used as a Las Vegas location in the series, and points to the entire Muskoka Region, where pivotal cottage scenes were filmed.

Bringing back Sea Bears’ Bilamu a no-brainer for club’s new head coach

After years of being overlooked in the league’s annual U Sports Draft, Nathan Bilamu was invited to Winnipeg Sea Bears training camp ahead of the 2025 campaign with nothing guaranteed.

Peterson rink wins Manitoba to earn spot in Scotties Tournament of Hearts

RIVERS — Kelsey Calvert has enough provincial finalist trophies.

She knew it’d take her best effort to avoid a fifth on Sunday, and that might not have been enough against an incredible Kaitlyn Lawes team. But the skip put Team Beth Peterson into position to have the hammer headed to an extra end, and suddenly won the RME Women of the Rings final 9-7 when Lawes tapped her stone onto the pin.

The back-to-back provincial women’s curling finalists soaked up their long-awaited championship moment.

“We’re thrilled,” said Calvert, who lost the 2019 and 2020 Alberta finals before moving to Manitoba in 2023 and now lives in Carberry, married to former world junior champion Braden Calvert.

Interlake explorer leads TV viewers on a modern Viking quest

Winnipegger Johann Sigurdson, a protagonist of the Quest for the Lost Vikings TV series that premièred on Super Channel Quest last Sunday, identifies with a long line of Norse explorers.

A millennium-long line, to be precise.

“We actually descend from folks that were likely here back from the time of the L’Anse aux Meadows: Thorfinn Karlsefni and Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir,” says Sigurdson.

The latter two are now recognized as early Icelandic explorers of North America, while L’Anse aux Meadows is an archeological site in Newfoundland of Norse settlement from about 1,000 years ago.

The unsung playmakers of Olympic hockey magic

As the country’s top hockey talents celebrated their selection to the Canadian men’s national team that will play at next month’s Olympic Games in Milan, a pair of Manitobans knew their spots with the team were already secure.

Darren Granger and Kurt Keats aren’t household names like the players and coaches who make up Team Canada: Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Josh Morrissey, or head coach Jon Cooper, to name a few.

That’s because Granger and Keats’ work is done away from the cameras and the spotlight, in locker rooms and offices. Make no mistake, though, they have become equally important to Team Canada’s quest for gold.

Granger is the team’s head equipment manager, while Keats is one of two managers of hockey operations.

Dedicated volunteers Kelly and Sandy Taylor receive prestigious Archery Manitoba award

Kelly and Sandy Taylor called it one of the greatest feats of their lives.

Bringing the largest event on the World Archery calendar to Winnipeg wasn’t easy, though.

Winnipegger Stone honoured to get Olympic call

Mark Stone feared he might have missed his one and only chance at the Olympics.

The Winnipegger was on the radar for Beijing in 2022, only to see the NHL withdraw from the Games due to the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adding literal injury to insult, ongoing back issues became too much to bear, forcing him under the knife a few months later and casting uncertainty over his future.

“When I went down before my second surgery, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to play again. You know, it creeps into the back of your mind. The first surgery didn’t work,” Stone said Tuesday prior to his Vegas Golden Knights facing the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre.

Turns out the second time was the charm — both for his medical procedure and his dream of playing on the sport’s biggest stage. Stone was named last week to Canada’s Olympic squad, which will head to Italy early next month.

Series continues to mine later-life feminine reality for laughs, insight

The Judy Blumes of menopause are back.

Small Achievable Goals, the workplace comedy about menopause from creators, executive producers, writers and stars Jennifer Whalen and Meredith MacNeill (Baroness Von Sketch Show), returns to CBC tonight for a second season of boundary-pushing TV.

“It’s kind of like we’re always in labour,” Whalen jokes.

Season 1, which premièred last winter, put Whalen and MacNeill firmly in the menopause cultural zeitgeist. Here, finally, was a frank and funny coming-of-middle-age comedy, with relatable characters played by women roughly the same age — Whalen is 55, MacNeill is 50 — who weren’t making hackneyed open-freezer hot-flash jokes or wallpapering over reality with euphemisms.

Field guide focuses on variety of architectural styles in Canada

Don Mikel is used to being compared to a bird watcher. The author and architectural enthusiast says he walked 40,000 steps in one day in downtown Winnipeg, his eyes peeled for our best examples of the Chicago School, Brutalism and quirkier, more regionally specific buildings.

Mixed-media artist works slowly to examine rapid ramifications of social media

Charlotte Sigurdson has her hands full. The 37-year-old mother, painter and sculptor is talking on the phone, while moments earlier she was sewing one.

While difficult stories dominated news feeds, caring and community were everywhere this year

Good news, everyone — 2025 wasn’t all bad!

Yes, plenty of horrific events transpired at home and abroad over the past 12 months — environmental disasters, humanitarian crises, economic uncertainty, political unrest, war.

But there were also many, many moments of human compassion.

If the goal of journalism is to shine a light on darkness, news organizations also need to cast a spotlight on lightness. Otherwise, we’re only telling one side of an exceedingly bleak story.