Toronto Raptors set another Canadian television record on title night

Special teams woes hurt Bombers in loss to Argos

THEY’VE been the most consistent of the three phases in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers arsenal this season.

A port in the proverbial storm, throughout this topsy-turvy campaign of ups-and-downs, the special-teams units have been supplying strength to a group that is still searching for consistency with only four games left in the regular season.

That’s what made this momentary lapse so costly in a 30-28 loss to the Toronto Argonauts on Friday at Princess Auto Stadium.

“We didn’t keep up our end of the bargain. And that hurts our football team, hurts our chances of winning games,” said Blue Bombers special teams ace Tanner Cadwallader. “And if we want to win close games. we’ve got to be a whole lot better than that. And we will. We’re going to come in (on Saturday for the film session) and go through it with a fine-tooth comb and just work a little bit harder.”

WSO season kicks off with two fateful fifths

Saturday night’s Masterworks program, titled Beethoven 5 and Tchaikovsky 5 and led by Daniel Raiskin, also officially introduced the WSO’s new composer-in-residence, Kelly-Marie Murphy, to the weekend crowd of 1,720. She was met with enthusiastic applause and cheers upon taking the stage.

The wheels on the bus burned down, down, down…

Up on the high ground, a year after the big forest fire in Newfoundland’s Conception Bay North, and the bare rock is startling.

It’s ghostly. The little birds flit and chirp from the naked silver bare-wood branches, and a solitary northern flicker makes its call from — somewhere. But mostly, it’s still, and silent. With the underbrush gone, you can see how little animal life is here right now.

But the most astounding thing is underfoot. On the high rock behind Adam’s Cove and away from the sea, not only are the trees and low brush gone, but much of the soil has burned away as well.

It burned very, very hot.

Raptors set another Canadian TV record

The Toronto Raptors' historic championship-clinching win will go down in the Canadian television record books.

Bell Media says a Canadian TV NBA record average audience of 7.7 million viewers watched the Raptors win the NBA title in Game 6 of the Finals on Thursday night against the Golden State Warriors.

The number includes viewers on TSN, CTV and the RDS French-language broadcast, but does not include Canadians watching the American feed.

The previous record was 6.4 million for Game 5 of the Finals on Rogers-owned Sportsnet and Citytv, a figure that does not include those watching the French-language broadcast.

Signs of local neo-Nazi recruiting efforts spark concern

A far-right canvassing push in Manitoba this month is raising concerns among Winnipeg residents.

Stickers promoting Nationalist-13, a men’s-only neo-Nazi group also known as NS-13 based primarily in Hamilton, Ont., have appeared in Winnipeg and parts of southern Manitoba. The stickers bear national socialist branding and messages such as “White Man, Fight Back” and “White Community, Political Action, Training and Fitness.”

Winnipeg writer Jess Woolford recently encountered an NS-13 poster on Pembina Highway.

“It was appalling,” Woolford said. “It has the Nazi death heads covering people’s faces. It was pretty disturbing to come across this … I just didn’t expect to see it so blatantly displayed in my neighbourhood.”

Unhappy Dynacare staff refuse OT shifts; doors could be closed at clinics with Saturday hours

Some Winnipeg Dynacare sites normally open on Saturday were closed last week, and may continue to be because staff are refusing to pick up overtime shifts after they were forced back to work amid a labour dispute with the company.