Slideshow: Counting Crows and the Wallflowers, July 10, 2013

Health system would suffer during extended Dynacare strike, board told

A prolonged strike at Dynacare labs would lead to unsustainable pressure on the public health-care system alongside testing and treatment delays for some patients, the Manitoba Labour Board was told Tuesday.

Dr. AbdulRazaq Sokoro, chief operating officer of diagnostic services at Shared Health, outlined the potential effect on blood, urine and other tests if the provincial authority has to implement a strike contingency plan that would give priority to patients deemed more vulnerable.

“We know from evidence and we know from medical fact that any patient that has complaints will get a worsening of their disease if they’re unattended to,” Sokoro said during a labour board hearing to determine whether unionized employees of Dynacare — a private, American-owned company — provide an essential service.

“We also know that in order for physicians to attend to complaints, they need to be able to diagnose the patient’s disease.

Seven years sought for serial harasser

Alexander Beaton finished serving a two-year jail sentence for criminally harassing six women and didn’t last two days in the community before he was back at it, sending unwanted obscene messages and videos to a dozen women.

Now prosecutors are seeking a seven-year prison sentence for the 30-year-old Winnipeg man, whose latest string of victims includes a police officer who investigated his earlier crimes.

“He essentially continued (offending) unabated,” Crown attorney Brett Rach told provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald at a sentencing hearing Friday. “It caused more than a nuisance to these victims — it caused them to fear for their safety.”

Beaton pleaded guilty to 14 charges of criminal harassment, sending indecent communications and breaching court orders for a campaign of harassment waged between 2015 and 2025.

Winnipeg venues saying no to AI-made advertisements

Although the days when telephone poles and notice boards across the city were thick with gig posters, either slopped up with wheat paste or wrapped tight with packing tape, are behind us, the art of making an appealing visual ad for live music events is still a vital part of the local creative scene.

However, a widespread backlash against a new kind of slop — the use of generative AI images — has been building, especially among creatives when it comes to promoting live music.

“Live music is and always has been a DIY type of scene, especially locally,” says Evan Simpson, who has been working as a graphic designer for nearly a decade.

“For years people have been making their own flyers, or if they have the budget, hiring a designer or artist to come up with some artwork for their flyers. It’s a whole ecosystem, a scene supporting itself. If you take away the visual side of it, the spark, individuality and uniqueness of each gig poster is lost. What a sad world it would be if all art were made by AI.”

City wants short-term rental unit property owners to report all emergency-service responses

New rules could require the owners of short-term rental units, such as Airbnbs and VRBOs, to tell the city every time an emergency responder is called to their properties.