Father of Captain Canuck returns to Winnipeg

Disgraced ex-dean landed job at German university after fleeing Winnipeg

Before he was arrested in a posh Paris suburb, the disgraced dean of Manitoba’s only law school — who fled the country following a 2020 expense scandal — kept a low profile at a German university.

Campaign blunder: Klein features wrong city in election video

A paid ad from mayoral candidate Kevin Klein on his commitment to Winnipeg has been pulled after commenters noticed one small error: the footage used in the ad was actually of Edmonton.

Father of Captain Canuck returns to Winnipeg

Actor Jay Baruchel may be the biggest star to come to Winnipeg as one of the “celebrity guests” of the Central Canada Comic Con this weekend, alongside genre luminaries such as Renee O’Connor (of Xena fame), John Rhys-Davies (Lord of the Rings) and Denise Crosby (Star Trek: The Next Generation). 

But in a way, Baruchel comes to the event riding the coattails of comic book writer-artist Richard Comely, who created and published the maple-flavoured superhero Captain Canuck from Winnipeg back in 1975.

Baruchel is behind the relaunch of Captain Canuck in his capacity as investor, owner and chief creative officer of Chapterhouse, a Canadian comic book publisher tasked with creating a new, unified comic universe for Canadian heroes, including Cap and Northguard.

Comely, 67, on the phone from his home in Ingersoll, Ont., says he will arrive to participate at C4 on Friday, and looks forward to returning to his old hometown, although he emphasizes he was not Winnipeg-born.

Clay Stevenson credits therapeutic side of hockey in learning to live with mother’s suicide

Hockey has always been more than just a game to Clay Stevenson. That was especially true after he suffered the biggest loss of his life: his mother, Holly, died by suicide seven years ago.

Katz ‘violated public trust,’ Sheegl lacked ‘moral compass,’ police HQ inquiry commissioner concludes

The final report from the public inquiry into the scandal-plagued Winnipeg Police Service headquarters construction project concludes that former mayor Sam Katz and former city CAO Phil Sheegl broke public trust and engaged in unethical conduct.

And the report, released Monday by inquiry commissioner Garth Smorang, says the cost of the project — transforming a downtown Canada Post office tower and warehouse into the police HQ — soared, in part, because main contractor Caspian Projects overcharged the city by more than $40 million in expenses.

The project’s initial $135-million initial price tag rose to about $209 million in the end. The city purchased the complex in 2009; construction was completed in 2016.

Smorang’s report concludes Katz “violated the public trust” and council code of conduct, and Sheegl suffered from a “complete lack of a moral compass.”

Would Canada actually spy on Cuba?

The Globe and Mail recently ran a series of stories on how “Havana syndrome” negatively impacted a number of diplomats working at the Canadian embassy in Cuba. As of this writing, there has been unusual radio silence on the topic from Mark Carney’s governing Liberals.

The reportage also linked the so-called “sonic attacks” or what the Americans call “anomalous health incidents” (and the attendant concussion-like symptoms) to a Russian high-frequency microwave weapon. More importantly, the Globe maintained that Moscow’s retaliation against Canadian officials in Havana was because of their close co-operation with U.S. intelligence agencies in spying on the Cuban government.

Some of the articles claimed that high-tech satellite gear, which was brought into Cuba covertly by U.S. officials, was installed on the roofs of the residences of Canadian diplomats in Havana. Presumably, Canadian officials — or what are sometimes referred to as officers or agents working under the Global Security Reporting Program (GSRP) within the Department of Global Affairs — were using this satellite technology to collect intelligence on human sources in Cuba.

The secret information was eventually passed on to Canada’s partners in the so-called “Five Eyes” alliance (the U.S., Australia, Britain and New Zealand). It’s worth pointing out that this wouldn’t have been the first time Canadian officials in Cuba were funnelling sensitive intelligence to their U.S. counterparts.