On the Night Table: Art DeFehr

Manitoba-made technology earns faith of investors across Canada

Blue light flashed as a robotic arm welded the metal in front of it.

Unlike other robots of its kind, this one uses artificial intelligence. It’s supposed to see and adjust its movements if a part it’s working on doesn’t match the standard piece.

It’s Manitoba-made technology that investors across Canada are betting on. TetraGen Robotics, the technology’s creator, announced it had raised $1.8 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round.

It announced the funding Monday afternoon. Jim Richardson, from the family behind Richardson International, is among the investors listed online.

Killer apologizes to family of 16-year-old he shot in 2024 before judge delivers 18-year manslaughter sentence

Sharon Basarowich’s voice quaked with emotion as she told a court Tuesday of the never-ending pain her family has been left with after her 16-year-old grandson was gunned down outside a Boyd Avenue drug house.

“We have a void that will never be filled,” said Basarowich, whose grandson Trey Basarowich, a talented hockey player and youth mentor, was fatally shot Oct. 5, 2024.

“When Trey died, a part of us died, too,” she said.

Devin Evans, 20, was originally charged with second-degree murder in the killing but in a plea bargain admitted to the lesser offence of manslaughter and was sentenced Tuesday to 18 years in prison.

RCMP investigating four-year-old girl’s death, two younger girls’ injuries in home on First Nation

RCMP are investigating after a four-year-old girl died in suspicious circumstances at a home in Long Plain First Nation over the weekend.

Paramedics called Manitoba First Nations Police Service officers at about 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, asking for assistance at a home where the girl was reported as injured and in medical distress.

Officers helped paramedics with emergency treatment, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Two other girls — a one-year-old and a two-year-old — were also found injured at the home. Paramedics took both to hospital. One of the girls was in critical condition, while the other was stable. Both are now stable.

As the world watches, Haiti’s hopes continue to fade

I wish that I had something uplifting and positive to say about the circumstances in Haiti today.

U of M medical student launching MediLuxe Scrubs Ltd.

By the time Kayla Curtis becomes a doctor, she’ll be running at least two businesses.

The fourth-year University of Manitoba medical student is the founder of WPG Local Cleaners Inc., a cleaning business she started in 2024 to fund her education. Today Curtis is launching MediLuxe Scrubs Ltd., a brand that offers functional and fashionable scrubs for women health-care workers.

“I’ve always loved fashion and creativity, and after spending the last several years in medicine, those two parts of my life naturally started to come together,” Curtis said.

What you wear doesn’t make you a better clinician, the 28-year-old Winnipegger added, but function, professionalism and personal expression don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

On the Night Table: Art DeFehr

"This summer started with In Light of India by Nobel-laureate Octavio Paz, where he uses his Mexican perspective to look at the interplay of religion, race and politics in India in his erudite style. To change the pace but stay in Mexico, I read Irma Voth by Miriam Toews, where she shifts her search for dysfunctional Mennonite families from Steinbach to Mexico. Next was The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism by Andrew Bacevich, a pessimistic view of the future of America. Currently I am reading Tim Flannery's Here on Earth, a less than flattering perspective of the impact of Homo sapiens on the diversity of our planet."