Living canvas

Day 1 of Jets training camp in the books with pairings essentially cemented

Nearly six minutes into his question-and-answer session, Scott Arniel took a welcome detour from the news of the day.

After exhausting the discussion around the goalie who wasn’t in training camp, the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets finally got a query about the line combinations and defensive pairings that were unveiled in training camp.

And unlike past years, when exhibition games were more frequent and the training camp wasn’t this condensed, Arniel conceded these groupings were intentional and were likely staying together for some time.

The expansion to an 84-game regular season brings with it a reduction to four pre-season games and a much shorter training camp, which could limit the amount of experimentation that Arniel can do during the next two weeks.

‘One of a kind’: CEO, philanthropist Doug Harvey dies at 72

Doug Harvey, a Winnipeg business titan and philanthropist, has died after battling cancer for more than a decade.

Harvey gave millions of dollars to Winnipeg organizations while he was CEO of DLH Group, a nationwide network of businesses that support heavy duty truck and trailer users.

Loren Remillard, CEO and president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said the business community is mourning the loss of the influential businessman who helped shape Winnipeg.

“We are a transportation and logistics hub in Winnipeg and it was partly the result of geography, and a big part because of leaders and visionaries like Doug Harvey,” he said.

Doc visits vistas made famous in Group of Seven paintings

Everyone knows about the French impressionists hanging out in Montmartre. But do Canadians know enough stories about their own artists? How about Lawren Harris, J.E.H. MacDonald and A.Y. Jackson sitting around a bonfire on the north shore of Lake Superior, arguing about Theosophy and drinking billy can coffee?

Painted Land: In Search of the Group of Seven follows photographers Joanie McGuffin and Gary McGuffin and art historian Michael Burtch as they walk — literally — in the footsteps of the Group of Seven. Using archival research to trace the Group’s sketching trips into “the north country,” they attempt to locate the specific lakes, waterfalls, rocks and forests these artists transmuted into vivid, vital landscape works.

Directed by Phyllis Ellis, this documentary is crammed with beauty, both the actual panoramas of northern Ontario and the small oil sketches and finished paintings the Group created from 1918 to 1928. Ellis combines footage of the McGuffins backpacking into the backwoods with rare archival footage of Group members and some sparingly used re-enactments. There are voiceovers (from Paul Gross, Colm Feore and Eric Peterson) reading the men’s essays and lively letters.

The Group’s prolific output — and shrewd self-promotion — eventually convinced Canadians to embrace homegrown art rather than settle for hand-me-down culture imported from Europe. (“Dutch windmills and Victorian battle scenes,” as Harris put it.) As Canada’s first explicitly nationalist art movement, the Group of Seven helped Canadians see their country anew, creating a powerful mythology around the land and their art.

Manitoba abandoning spring, fall clock changes

Time’s up for the time change in Manitoba.

Manitobans won’t be setting their clocks back an hour in November. The province has decided to permanently stay on daylight time after surveying residents on the twice annual clock adjustment.

“We heard from Manitobans loud and clear — no more changing the clocks in Manitoba,” Premier Wab Kinew said in a news release Thursday.

Most of the 72,000 votes submitted in an online EngageMB survey — 92 per cent — said they would like to see the practice end. The survey asked if they preferred earlier sunrises in winter with standard time or the later sunsets in summer with daylight time. More than half of survey participants (58 per cent) indicated a preference to stay on permanent daylight time; 34 per cent voted to eliminate the time change but stay on standard time.

Online fundraiser for ‘polite, modest farmer’ facing firearms charges sending message, neighbour says

Thousands of dollars have been raised to help cover the legal fees of a Manitoba man charged after he allegedly fired a gun at thieves during a theft on his farm in August.

Police officer faces charges of domestic assault

A Winnipeg police officer has been charged after police said he broke into a woman’s home and attacked her.

Police were sent to a home on Wednesday shortly before 10:20 p.m., the Winnipeg Police Service said in a Thursday news release. When officers arrived, they found the man, 20-year member in his 40s, inside a home assaulting the woman, the release said.

The man was taken into custody and the woman was given medical aid.

She told officers the man broke into the home, threatened to kill her and then attacked her.