Random acts of kindness: Giving thanks

Fringe reviews #1: Choose your fighter, then your venue

Absolutely not a cult, Afeni, #Black Eye, Chekov Shorts, Fakespeare, The Ghost of a Flea, A Sexy Pigeon Show, The Shelter, Things That Go Bump, Viento.

Dauphin hospital could be closed 9-12 months

BRANDON — A 78-year-old woman who has stage 4 lung cancer says she’s “frustrated and scared” knowing the hospital in Dauphin may not reopen for up to a year and that would require her to travel for treatment.

“I know it’s affected a lot of people, probably worse than me, but in my personal case, it couldn’t happen at a worse time,” said Janice Nybo, who lives on a farm a few kilometres south of Dauphin.

“I’ve been using that hospital quite a bit in the last three months.”

Severe flooding in the basement of the Dauphin Regional Health Centre, owing to a massive amount of rainfall in late June, caused a power outage and damage to its HVAC system. The building was evacuated on Canada Day. Fifty-four patients were sent to nearby health centres, including 24 patients who were transferred to the Brandon hospital.

Sheriff who died in train collision ‘loved everybody’

Brett Matheson-Maytwayashing was a loving father, hard-working sheriff and proud First Nations man who helped lead traditional ceremonies for a decade before he died in a collision with a train near Portage la Prairie.

Matheson-Maytwayashing, 27, died in the Tuesday morning crash, which occurred on a rural road west of Portage while he and another member of the sheriff’s service were on their way to attend court in Amaranth, his mother, Alissa Matheson-Maytwayashing, told the Free Press.

It was Matheson-Maytwayashing’s first day back at work after taking time off to participate in a sun dance ceremony in northern Saskatchewan last week, his mother said.

“Brett didn’t judge anybody, he would give people chances,” she said, her voice breaking. “He didn’t care what colour you were, he didn’t care your nationality — Brett just loved everybody.”

Hydro’s planned outages turn out the lights for thousands across province

Business owners in the East Beaches area of Lake Winnipeg hauled out generators Wednesday after a planned Manitoba Hydro outage left thousands of residents and cottagers without power.

Lise Bourassa, who runs several stores in Grand Beach, had to rent generators to accommodate the eight-hour blackout, which affected the area from Beaconia to Victoria Beach as well as Sagkeeng First Nation, while Hydro crews fixed a pole that was damaged by fire in May .

Despite the spare power source, she was only able to open one of her stores during the outage and said it came at a bad time.

“I understand the importance of what Manitoba Hydro is doing, the problem all the businesses in this area are having is that our season is very short and to be shut down for a full day has a fairly big impact, plus they added cost of getting generators,” she wrote in a message to the Free Press. “We also had less than one week to make arrangements, find electricians and generators to be able to keep all the food safe.”

Wheat City wants Brier back in town for 2028

BRANDON — Seven years after hosting Canada’s top men’s curling tournament, the City of Brandon has made a bid to bring the Brier back in 2028.

Curling Canada will announce the host for the tournament, which will be held from Feb. 25 to March 5, in the fall.

“I like to think that we’ve put in the best bid we possibly can, and that we stand a very good chance,” said Jennifer Watson, executive director of Brandon First, a non-profit organization that promotes Brandon as a host city for events.

Bidding for the popular 18-team event closed at the end of May, and the winning city is expected to be notified confidentially by Sept. 30.