Siblings’ exploits mine a range of emotions

Siblings’ exploits mine a range of emotions

Vancouver-born writer Tyler Keevil’s new novel is a humorous and surprisingly touching story about two adult brothers on a criminal misadventure along the West Coast of Canada and the United States.

The story is told from the point of view of Tim Harding, the older of the two, who works as a deckhand on a fishing boat in Vancouver. He’s a hard worker who does a good job, despite one of his hands being badly damaged on the job, and the family he works for treats him as one of their own.

As fishing season draws to a close, Tim makes plans to take a short vacation with his boss, Albert, and his family, including the daughter with whom he has a flirtatious, potentially romantic relationship.

Enter Jake, the younger brother Tim hasn’t seen since they had a fight at Christmas. Jake shows up at Tim’s workplace wanting to reconnect, but Tim is suspicious — as is Albert, who clearly dislikes Jake and whose sentiment supplies the book’s title.

South Osborne residents fail in bid to prevent construction of 131-unit apartment tower

A proposed 10-storey highrise on an empty south Osborne lot will move forward despite concerns from residents about the impact the building will have on nearby parking and traffic.

The city-owned lot at 425 Osborne St., which previously served as a gas station but has long sat vacant, will be developed into a mixed-use residential building with 131 units, 39 of which would be affordable, along with additional office space for the adjacent Winnipeg Transit garage and the Transit customer service centre across the street, along with a two-level parkade for tenants and Transit employees.

The property is being developed by the University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corp. 2.0, and designed by Prairie Architects Inc.

At a meeting held by city council’s appeal committee Wednesday, several residents said while they supported the idea of more housing in the Lord Roberts neighbourhood, they had lingering concerns about the impact the development will have on the already-busy area.

Plenty of good money to be made at Manitoba Derby

The 78th running of the $125,000 Manitoba Derby is nearly upon us, and the house will be packed on Monday evening at Assiniboia Downs for the biggest race of the year. And it’s not just the Derby people are coming for.

Monday’s racing card features a mandatory payout on the ASD 20-cent Jackpot Pick 5, which currently has a carryover of $476,656 that could swell to $2 million by post time.

Nine of the best three-year-olds in Canada have been entered for Manitoba’s signature race, and we have to agree with what track announcer Kirt Contois said at the Derby press conference on Friday: “This is one of the strongest fields ever assembled for our local Derby.”

Almost long gone are the days when you could buy or claim a potential Derby horse for $20,000 and win. It can happen, but a number of horses in this year’s Derby are coming out of races where you’d have to pay at least $100,000 to buy the winner. And even that wouldn’t guarantee success.

Culture minister’s pledge sends officials on hunt for money to fix Islamic centre after apparent hate crime

Government officials were left scrambling Friday to explain why the province is paying for repairs at a mosque recently targeted in a potential hate crime after a $1 million security enhancement fund was fully allocated in June.

Manitobans will feel pinch of feds' early retirement plan: union leader

About 10,000 federal public servants have applied for the government’s early retirement program, launched as part of a plan to cut the number of bureaucrats.

The cuts will impact services to Manitobans, with increasing workloads for those who remain, says the union representing federal employees here.

“It’s going to be increased workloads, maybe delays in services — issues getting your passport or seeking in-person support for (employment insurance),” said Krysty Thomas, Public Service Alliance of Canada regional vice-president for the Prairies.

“Those will all be affected with these early incentive retirement packages.”

Colson Whitehead’s trilogy capper bids farewell to criminal character

For 10 years, Colson Whitehead has lived with a small-time crook-turned-Harlem furniture store owner who moonlights as a fence (laundering stolen goods). But with Cool Machine, the third book in his Harlem trilogy, the author is ready to say goodbye to Ray Carney.

Whitehead, 56, will be in Winnipeg on Tuesday to launch Cool Machine, his 11th novel, at WAG-Qaumajuq, where he’ll be joined in conversation by local author David A. Robertson.

The New York City author’s rise to literary prominence skyrocketed when two of his consecutive novels — 2016’s The Nickel Boys and 2019’s The Underground Railroad — each won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He’s also the recipient of both MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships and the U.S. National Humanities Medal, among numerous other accolades.

While Carney’s first appearance on the page was in Whitehead’s 2021 novel Harlem Shuffle, a story that takes place in 1960s New York, the character had been keeping the author company long before that. And in the process of writing Harlem Shuffle, Whitehead realized he wanted to explore Carney in more depth than what one novel would allow.