A symbolic return

Province orders ban on private teacher-student messaging

Manitoba teachers are no longer allowed to text or use social media to contact a student – regardless of whether they coach a school sports team or supervise other activities outside typical instruction times.

Goalposts to define normal vintage keep moving

The 2026 grape-growing vintage in the northern hemisphere is done and dusted, with producers in most wine-producing countries having to navigate a growing season that was, to put it mildly, volatile.

European producers in particular struggled with a growing season plagued by a lengthy heat wave, wildfires and hail.

Some producers in Bordeaux, for example, started picking wine grapes for both white and red grapes in August, weeks ahead of when the fruit would normally be brought in from the vineyards. Drought-like conditions resulted in the region’s viticultural regulatory body giving permission to wineries in some sub-regions to irrigate, which they’re not normally allowed to do, and a mid-July hail storm wreaked havoc on grapes.

The region was also devastated by wildfires over the summer, which saw thousands flee the region but which mostly spared vineyards, although the effect of smoke may find its way into some wines.

Opening of Portage and Main shows even seemingly insurmountable impasses can be overcome

There are places in a city that become more than places. Portage and Main is one of them. For generations of Winnipeggers, the intersection has represented downtown, traffic, development and civic identity. Its reopening to pedestrians in 2025, after 46 years of closure, was about more than crossing a street. It was a reminder that decisions made by one generation can shape the choices available to another — and that even seemingly permanent decisions can be reconsidered.

I have spent much of my professional life thinking about Winnipeg as a planner, working in public, private and non-profit settings. My PhD research gave me an opportunity to examine Portage and Main differently: not simply as a debate about cars and pedestrians, but as a window into how power operates in a city. I reviewed 569 archival documents spanning the 1960s to the present, interviewed 48 planners with experience in Winnipeg, and mapped the relationships between planners, politicians, developers, engineers, residents, businesses and advocacy groups.

What emerged was a story about how planning decisions become embedded in a city’s institutions, agreements, infrastructure, professional practices and political expectations — shaping not only what gets built, but who gets to influence what gets built.

The closure of Portage and Main in 1979 did not remain a decision confined to a particular political moment. Over time, it was reinforced by development agreements, physical infrastructure, property relationships, traffic-engineering practices, administrative routines, and public narratives about mobility and downtown revitalization. The people who made many of those original decisions eventually left office. The arrangements they created remained. Later planners inherited them.

Eadie faces crowded field — including former councillor — in bid for fifth term in Mynarski

The city’s most crowded council race has a little bit of everything: a long-serving incumbent, a former ward councillor in the 1980s, an unsuccessful candidate in the last municipal election seeking a rematch and three political newcomers.

Mynarski has long been led by Coun. Ross Eadie, who was first elected in 2010 and is seeking his fifth term. Five challengers want the job: Natalie Smith, who ran in the ward in 2022 and came in second, Terry Wachniak, Harold Brazil, Laurie Kozak and Ayaz Noor Mohammed.

It’s the city ward with the largest number of candidates this year.

Eadie describes himself as “a dancer, a singer and a city councillor” who has made inroads on garbage pickup, back-lane cleaning and earning the respect of his fellow council members by being the first Mynarski councillor to be appointed to executive policy committee, the mayor’s inner circle, in decades.

Bombers top B.C. Lions 34-10 to earn playoff spot

Dru Brown saved the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ season.

They were a trainwreck for the opening 40-plus minutes in Vancouver on Friday night before Brown provided the ultimate spark, accounting for 31 consecutive points in a 34-10 victory over the B.C. Lions to clinch a playoff berth.

The Lions — who had nothing to play for and rested a long list of key starters — somehow led 10-3 late in the third quarter when Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros was forced to leave the game. Lions defensive tackle Nathan Cherry was flagged for roughing the passer after driving Collaros into the turf, and the 38-year-old pivot was ruled out shortly thereafter.

And then Brown’s brilliance began.