Poverty activists target luxury outdoor dinner staged near former homeless camp

St. Malo’s summer hot spot relies on dedicated community to make sure park-goers can kick back and relax

August 21, 10:10 a.m.There’s nobody on the beach at St. Malo Provincial Park yet, though there’s certain to be plenty of visitors later. It’s shaping up to be a hot late-August Friday in southern Manitoba; the forecast warns of a thunderstorm in the late afternoon, but that won’t stop Manitobans from flocking to savour one of the last great beach days of the summer.

On a typical such weekend, this park, situated just an hour’s drive southeast of Winnipeg, can squeeze up to 2,000 guests onto the sandy crescent of its expansive main beach, and about 600 more on its other bathing-ready shore, which is nestled near the campground and thus long called Camper Beach.

For now, though, the scene around the lake is quiet and picture-perfect. The morning sun sparkles on the lake’s placid grey surface. A gaggle of Canada geese swim lazily, honking at each other. As park manager Bill Prevost pulls up on the beach in a golf cart, he nods at the birds with a wink.

“Did we tell you about the rule?” Prevost quips. “If you come here, you have to take four geese back with you.”

NDP defends involvement of U.S. company in Hydro project

A U.S. company that donated to Donald Trump’s 2025 presidential inauguration could build Manitoba Hydro’s proposed $3-billion natural gas turbines, which has drawn criticism from an environmental group amid the NDP government’s pushback to tariffs.

The ‘Buy Canadian’ trade war challenge

“Buy Canadian,” they tell us, as trade tensions escalate between Canada and the United States. “Elbows up,” the pithy slogan advises again and again, in response to the latest daily affront from increasingly unbalanced U.S. President Donald Trump.

Comic creator unleashes talent with book bound for festival

For Glenn Hares, comic books — specifically, superhero comics — have always been a refuge, a way to both understand and escape the world.

Now, he’s prepared to release his own into the world.

“When I was in high school, I started creating characters, like this guy here,” says Hares, 40, showing a reporter a copy of the self-published Tytanium No. 0.

“Originally, he was just named Jerry Wolfe. Recently, my aunt suggested I make him neurodivergent because I based him on myself. A lot of superheroes have extraordinary, fantastic, out-of-the-ordinary powers, but they’re also just people. They live imperfect lives.”

Woman who saved child, father from Red River uncomfortable with hero label

A Winnipeg woman who’s been hailed as a hero by police for saving a father and his young child from the Red River says she doesn’t feel like one.

“I’m a mom… and I would do it again,” said Jayclyn Morrissette, who was walking with her neighbour through St. John’s Park on Aug. 24 when they spotted a young girl flailing in the nearby river. “I was meant to be there and that was supposed to happen.”

Morrissette, who spoke to the Free Press Wednesday after police released details about the rescue, said she and her neighbour began looking for the child’s parents and found them at the nearby playground searching for her.

Morrissette waved them over. The father, who she said could not swim, jumped into the river first and immediately began to sink.