Reconciliation begins with brutal honesty

CEBL disputes cancellation being a black eye for league

One day after the first game of its nationally televised inaugural championship series was cancelled owing to unsafe court conditions, the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s president and CEO refuted the idea that the circumstances are a black eye on the league.

Ty Mazereeuw stood by the league’s decision to allow Wednesday night’s Game 1 of the CEBL Finals between the Winnipeg Sea Bears and Brampton Honey Badgers to go forward at the CAA Centre in Southern Ontario, even though it was kiboshed before the contest was two minutes old due to condensation on the court that stemmed from a sheet of ice underneath the court that had been installed earlier in the week.

The bizarre and abrupt ending to what was supposed to be a best-of-three series came nine days after a bench-clearing brawl broke out in the regular-season finale between Brampton and the Scarborough Shooting Stars, which led to five players being suspended and six players fined — another situation in which the league was criticized for its handling.

“I would just say (I’m not) sure I fully buy that the league has fallen flat. I think what we’ve seen is a couple of significant situations that have been amplified, whether it was through a celebrity, or in a case like (Wednesday) night when you have more people than we’ve ever had in Brampton, and it happens to be Game 1 of the Finals, and that situation happens — wish it could have been in the regular season — everything is just amplified. And because those two things have happened in a short period of time, I think it’s magnified for sure, and especially amongst our most passionate fans, and it invites conversation,” Mazereeuw told the Free Press Thursday.

Poilievre’s simplistic bluster a desperate bid for attention in a serious moment for nation

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s suggestion that Mark Carney needs more “backbone” to negotiate with Donald Trump would be easier to take seriously if anyone had actually figured out how to negotiate with the U.S. president.

Blue Bombers return with Collaros at the controls

There are worse places the Winnipeg Blue Bombers could be than 4-4.

But if they want to stay at or above .500, they can’t play anything like they have in their previous two outings, in which they’ve been outscored 87-49. Their latest setback was a 35-19 loss to the B.C. Lions on July 30.

“Everybody wants to win every single game in our locker room so I think we can empathize with people’s frustration,” said quarterback Zach Collaros after Thursday’s walkthrough at Princess Auto Stadium.

The Bombers have a glorious opportunity to get back on track when they host the lowly, winless Ottawa Redblacks (0-8) for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff on Friday night. The Redblacks dropped a 42-20 road result against the Saskatchewan Roughriders last week.

Moving rail lines outside city would make Winnipeg ‘major transportation hub’

After decades of calls to move rail traffic to the outskirts of Winnipeg, a plan that would benefit residents, railways and taxpayers is now on track, says the former Winnipegger leading the way.

A rail line bypass south of the city, using Crown-owned land and the Manitoba Hydro corridor, would take 20 years to complete, remove 120 railway crossings that are a safety risk and free up about 250 acres of Winnipeg land over time for development, Lloyd Axworthy said Wednesday.

“The visions that we have have to be implemented,” Axworthy said at a news conference announcing the launch of a 90-day feasibility study to move freight rail traffic out of Winnipeg’s urban core along Manitoba Hydro’s southern transmission corridor, connecting east to west along the Perimeter Highway.

The former federal transport minister and Manitoba MP was tasked by Premier Wab Kinew in October 2024 to lead a two-year rail relocation feasibility study.

It’s one thing to climb aboard rail-relocation train, quite another to pay for the ride

Anyone who wants a brighter, safer, healthier future for the city of Winnipeg should really want the renewed hopes of rail relocation to finally become reality. And the sooner, the better.

Premier Wab Kinew announced Wednesday the province was going to forge a plan to relocate the Canadian Pacific Kansas City central yards and many of other the lines that run through Winnipeg to a bypass that runs around the city.

This “plan to design a plan” strategy was devised by a task force headed up by former federal MP and cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy, who in 2024 was given a two-year mandate to find the best way to rid the city of some or all of its rail infrastructure.

For the record, Kinew and Axworthy said a relocation would likely take 20 years to complete, which makes this week’s announcement an important statement of intent, but little more. The sobering reality is that this promising idea has been proposed by political leaders, and then abandoned, for decades.

Transcona councillor faces new sex assault charge

A city councillor charged with sex assault earlier this year faces new sex charges in a separate incident, in a case Winnipeg’s mayor called “deeply concerning.”

Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt, 56, was charged Monday with sexual assault and administering a noxious thing with intent to aggrieve or annoy over an October 2023 incident.

Allegations of a 2023 assault were reported to the Winnipeg Police Service in April, a month after Wyatt was charged with sex assault in relation to a 2025 incident.

In the 2023 incident, a man told police he become acquainted with Wyatt through a website in July of that year and said they met in person on more than one occasion.