Your forecast
Periods of light snow, with wind from the north at 40 km/h gusting to 60. High -7 C, wind chill near -20.
What’s happening today
Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore’s book club meets at the shop (163 Lilac St.) at 7 p.m. to discuss Michael Christie’s Greenwood, a Scotiabank Giller Prize-longlisted novel and winner of the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award (now called the Canadian Crime Writing Awards) for best novel.
The Free Press Book Club also meets 7 p.m., albeit virtually, to talk about Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, A White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation by Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii), both of whom will be in attendance via Zoom. See wfp.to/bookclub for details

Douglas Sanderson (left) and Andrew Stobo Sniderman (Supplied)
The Winnipeg Jets face off against the Edmonton Oilers at 7 p.m. at the Canada Life Centre.
Today’s must-read
The number of annual drug deaths in Manitoba climbed to a record high in 2023, prompting sorrow and more calls for action from advocates.
There were 445 drug-related deaths last year, up slightly from 418 in 2022 and 432 in 2021, based on initial data from the province’s chief medical examiner, which was released Monday.
“To me, this would be a good time to declare a state of emergency and say, ‘We need to do something about this,’” said Arlene Last-Kolb, the Manitoba regional director of Moms Stop the Harm, a group of parents who’ve lost children to drug poisonings. Chris Kitching has the story.
On the bright side
When Nina Condo learned her organization would receive nearly $650,000 to support gender-based violence programs for newcomer Canadians, she let out a sigh of relief.
“This funding means I can finally breathe,” said Condo, executive director of the Elmwood Community Resource Centre and Area Association. “It’s giving people the hope and strength to not give up.”
The centre was one of 17 organizations to share $7.4 million from the federal government that’s been earmarked combat gender-based violence in the Prairies. Tyler Searle reports.

Nina Condo, executive director of Elmwood Community Resource Centre, says that the $650,000 her organization received will help them help newcomers who are often left behind. (John Woods / Free Press)
On this date
On March 26, 1935: The Winnipeg Free Press reported after “long debate” the Winnipeg school board passed its 1935 budget for $3,196,887.65, one of the biggest in the board’s history. In Ottawa, prime minister R. B. Bennett sought a reduction of the U.S. customs duty on whisky to $2.50 a gallon from $5. The surplus would take Canadians “30 years, at present rates, to dispose of the stocks of whisky now held in distilleries and warehouses in eastern Canada.” During a nine-hour conference between Sir John Simon and Anthony Eden, Adolf Hitler said Germany would never attack Russia. Read the rest of this day’s paper here. Search our archives for more here.

Today’s front page
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