REVIEW: Johnny Reid keeps focus on relationships

Awareness is the first line of defence

September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in Canada. This proclamation helps focus public attention on the very important protective role that such awareness can play in reducing the death and suffering associated with this disease.

The underlying reason for that is simple. In its beginning, prostate cancer, as is true for all cancers, starts and grows silently and stealthily, giving no indication through pain or other symptoms of its presence and of the developing pathology. Everything appears normal to the unsuspecting host until the cancer has grown to an extent that it interferes with normal function. There might then be pain, bleeding or some other manifestation of the growing tumour.

Unfortunately, by that time the disease may have reached an advanced stage, which is much more difficult to treat, and less likely to have a favourable outcome. It is a general truth in dealing with all types of cancer that the earlier it is discovered and treated, the better the likelihood of a favourable outcome. Awareness can be a major determinant of whether such early discovery happens or not.

Discovery of the cancer during its period of silent, surreptitious growth creates the opportunity for early treatment. Fortunately, in the case of prostate cancer such detection is favoured by two factors.

Manitoba gains doctors for third straight year, but loses at pandemic-level rate: report

Manitoba is adding doctors at a record clip — but it’s also losing them at a rate not seen since the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, a physicians advocacy organization cautioned Wednesday.

U of M students call for ban on far-right group

Some University of Manitoba students are calling on their school to ban a far-right group from campus after posters promoting mass deportations were found during the summer break.

More than 50 people rallied on Wednesday, the first day of classes, to make known their concerns about a group called the Dominion Society of Canada.

The protest was organized after a supporter of the self-described nationalist group posted a video over the Labour Day weekend that shows him putting up flyers in Fort Garry.

“Canada is a really beautiful country and I have been welcomed here by a lot of beautiful people and it’s been amazing, but when I see harmful rhetoric online and now, on campus, it gives me a lot of anxiety,” said Ela Ancheta, an arts major at U of M.

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: There are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions today. The new moon is in Virgo.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Discussions with partners and close friends will intensify in the next few weeks and financial discussions will favour you. In fact, money might come your way. The new moon is perfect for making resolutions to improve your health.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

‘We feel lucky — and a bit traumatized’: Tornado confirmed in River Heights Sunday

Tanner Lemieux wasn’t surprised to learn the violent winds that tore through River Heights and reached their peak near his home Sunday night have been classified as a tornado.

While driving back to his Lindsay Street home from a shopping trip with his wife Sunday, it became clear they were not in the middle of an ordinary thunderstorm when rain and wind started coming from every direction and hit every side of their truck.

The forceful wind made it impossible for him to open his door after they had parked. He climbed through the window, over the top of his vehicle, and the couple struggled to fight the whipping winds to make it into the house.

“As we were running in, the wind started pulling me backwards out of the door,” he told the Free Press while cleaning debris from his yard Thursday.

Childfree Winnipeg group gives women without kids a place to gather

Katelyn Sawatzky founded Childfree Winnipeg Women in 2021 to bring together women who don’t have kids — be it by choice or circumstance — and do not plan on raising children.

The group is designed to help them share experiences and build meaningful friendships.

The community welcomes cisgender, straight, transgender, bisexual and lesbian women. Parents, including empty nesters and men, are turned away.

“Our group is a safe space where women can hang out with other women without being asked when you’re going to have kids or why you don’t have kids … where you don’t feel like you have to validate or defend your choices in any way, because everyone gets it,” Sawatzky says.