Reimagining Phantom for a modern audience

NDP minister needs lesson in political civility

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine’s decision to intercede in Winnipeg’s mayoral election may be surprising to some political observers. To others, however, it is entirely on brand.

On Tuesday, Fontaine posted a video on social media in which she expressed concern that former city councillor and Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Kevin Klein was entering the race to challenge incumbent Mayor Scott Gillingham.

The caption on the video was blunt: “I mean, really, who chooses to work for Count Dracula?”

“Kevin Klein once worked for Peter Nygard. Peter Nygard is Canada’s equivalent to (American sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein — had his own little island, did unspeakable, disgusting things to women and girls … anyways, I just thought that Winnipeggers would want to know that Kevin Klein, at one point, worked for Peter Nygard,” she says in the video.

Picking berries, sharing wonders in a muted woodland

This summer, Manitoba suffered prolonged periods of extreme weather. While eager to pick berries with my grandson, as is our habit, the temperatures were forbidding.

My grandson, 5, remained intrepid. As I am the one who charmed him into becoming a picker, I must be equally so.

When he is ready (and that depends on many factors, all of which are out of my control), he points to the blue bucket and the side porch door. It’s time. The time might be high noon (and often it is) when the sun is at its peak and my cellphone tells me the temperature is a 35 C that “feels like” 44.

There is always the line —“only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun” — I reference as we set out. To begin, of course, there is the snack, the hat, the water bottle, the bucket, the bug spray, sneakers, socks (ticks) and the cell.

Phantom production puts new spin on old favourite

If you go to see the touring production of The Phantom of the Opera, playing at the Centennial Concert Hall this week, consider yourself on notice — this is not the same show you’ve seen in past touring productions.

The music is the same. The Tony Award-winning costume design (by Maria Björnson) is the same.

But the production, now in its fourth year of touring, has undergone something of a reimagining, said associate director Seth Sklar-Heyn, giving credit to producer Cameron Mackintosh, who supervised the original production 30 years ago.

“After 25 years, no one’s reinterpreted it, so you have the luxury to allow the same source material to be put through a different lens,” Sklar-Heyn said.

Manitoba doctor denies working to revive Carberry ER in response to recruitment lawsuit

A Manitoba doctor has denied he was working as a recruiter after an Ontario doctor accused him of misleading him about a position at the Carberry hospital.

Dr. Klevis Iliriani, who worked at the hospital in Carberry from May to August 2024, filed his statement of claim in Court of King’s Bench earlier this year.

Iliriani, who lives in an Ottawa suburb, has alleged recruiters negligently misrepresented the job at the Carberry hospital and breached the terms of his contract, which resulted in less pay than promised.

His court filing names defendants Dr. Dave Maharajh and Barry Banek as the recruiters.

What’s open, what’s closed, what’s up in Winnipeg on Labour Day

Here's a roundup of hours of business for services and things to do on September 7.