Art and cupcakes go Over the Top

First Nations’ concerns overshadowed by talk of major projects

The contrast could not have been more stark in Ottawa — unceded Algonquin territory — this week.

On one side, hundreds of chiefs and their proxies met at the annual summer meeting of the Assembly of First Nations to debate resolutions focused on issues — primarily crises — in their communities.

Of the 53 policy resolutions and two emergency resolutions proposed by the chiefs, pressing topics such as child welfare, housing, drinking water, poverty, Alberta separatism, citizenship, and online attacks from deniers of the atrocities of residential schools were all on the agenda.

On the other side, over seven cabinet ministers from the federal government showed up basically to argue the case for the fast-tracking of “major projects.”

Christopher Nolan crafts modern epic, brings wartime saga home

Months before this week’s release of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey, the film was already being criticized for being too “woke,” insufficiently manly, overly casual and not faithful enough to the original 2,800-year-old poem.

There was a lot of online griping about the historical inaccuracy of the armour, the helmets and the boats. (These accusations about lack of realism being made, mind you, against a story that also includes a one-eyed, man-eating giant, a six-headed sea monster and a sorceress who can turn men into pigs.)

If you’re willing to approach it on its own terms, Nolan’s cinematic epic is magnificent, moving and visually astonishing. And — putting to one side those quibbles about period-specific Bronze Age breastplates — his take ends up being “realistic” in a much more profound sense: even sequences reaching toward mythic heights remain grounded in fundamental and enduring human questions about love and loyalty, death and war, time and age.

Worrying about fidelity to the original also seems by-the-by. The Odyssey is a foundational text that weaves through centuries of re-imaginings in literature and art. Even the comparatively brief history of cinema offers up several adaptations, from a 1905 silent short by Georges Méliès, to a (sadly) unrealized Ray Harryhausen Claymation version in the 1990s, to the Coen Brothers’ antic musical O Brother, Where Art Thou? from 2000.

Winnipeg Fringe Festival: 2026 show reviews

Not sure what to see at this year's Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival? All of the Free Press’s reviews will be published here.  Find a show and click to read its review.

Councillors expand downtown cleanup of drug-related items, weapons

City hall wasted no time Thursday expanding the seasonal cleanup of drug needles and other hazardous material from select downtown parks to include many other public spaces, at least until the end of this year.

Fringe reviews #2: No cheat codes required

Dangerous Curves, Elon Muskrat, Evolution of a Broken Heart, Fool's Gambit, Hair Brained, Happy Valley, Lies of a Promiscuous Woman, Mr. Loopy Pants, Pete Seeger Tribute, Tymisha Harris

Animal rescue worker reportedly killed in dog attack

Police are investigating after a woman died on the Sandy Bay First Nation, reportedly after being attacked by dogs.

The woman was identified by family as 37-year-old Amanda Nobiss.

“It’s just disbelief,” said Sherri Nobiss, her mother, in a phone call. Her family is devastated by the loss. “You just want to know what has happened.”

She said Amanda was a dedicated animal advocate who was volunteering with K9 Advocacy Manitoba in the community at the time. Amanda, who was from Winnipeg, is pictured with a dog in almost all of her photos on social media.