Be constructive in helping stuck son leave nest

Orphaned polar bear cub has new home at Winnipeg zoo

It’s a grey September afternoon and a small group is gathered for a special behind-the-scenes visit with Assiniboine Park Zoo’s newest resident.

“Heeeeere, bubba,” animal-care specialist Caitlin Gordon-Hall hollers from between a double layer of chain-link fencing.

After a beat, a small white face appears at the entrance of the private enclosure. The polar bear cub sniffs the air before trundling toward the fence, where his keepers have been working to encourage calm behaviour around humans ahead of his public debut on Thursday.

Gordon-Hall offers sing-song affirmations while the cub, who is nearly 200 pounds and 10 or 11 months old, observes the fawning strangers with guarded curiosity.

Nurses disciplined for botched IV infusion

Two nurses working at the Grace Hospital have been reprimanded and fined $2,500 each for an IV infusion gone bad and an attempted coverup.

The incident happened on November 23, 2023 when a nurse asked a colleague to set up an IV infusion on him in an unused operating room.

During the attempted IV start, the nurse lost consciousness. The nurse who attempted the IV drip and another who was in the room called for help and several staff responded.

The nurse regained consciousness and vomited, but recovered and continued to work his shift, a March 18 decision by the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba says.

Indigenous offenders need a new path to justice

Indigenous peoples – and Indigenous men in particular – are incarcerated at a rate higher than any other group in Canada.

As Canada’s own Department of Justice reports from data last collected in 2024: “Indigenous adults make up roughly 4 per cent to 5 per cent of Canada’s general population, yet account for about 32 per cent to 33 per cent of federal custodial populations and a higher share in provincial and territorial facilities.”

According to Statistics Canada during the 2023-2024 year 2.6 per cent of all Indigenous adults in Canada were incarcerated (25,640 people) with that rate doubling for the total amount of Indigenous men (7.3 per cent).

And things are getting worse.

Powerful allegory, magic wonder as ballet takes on Stravinsky

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet opened its mainstage season with fire and ice Thursday, as it paid homage to Russian composer Igor Stravinsky with Stravinsky Stories.

Local balletomanes may remember Alexei Ratmansky as a principal dancer during the early 1990s. The internationally renowned dance artist returns in a full-circle moment to stage The Fairy’s Kiss, the 50-minute work his first collaboration with the RWB in more than 30 years. He began flexing his choreographic muscles in its downtown studios with an earlier, reimagined incarnation in 1994, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Ice Maiden, in turn set to Stravinsky’s own tribute to Tchaikovsky’s lushly romantic ballet scores.

Its narrative follows the journey of a Young Man (newly minted principal dancer Skylar Campbell, with all leads alternating) saved — and kissed — by a Fairy (principal dancer Elizabeth Lamont, who rips off a dizzying set of “fouettes”) after his Mother (former principal dancer Vanessa Léonard adding her own gravitas) perishes in a blizzard.

After falling in love with his fiancée (principal dancer Alanna McAdie, infusing her character with innocent youthfulness grounded by intricate footwork), he is tricked on his wedding day by the now disguised Fairy who reveals her true identity — and his ultimate destiny.

A Rocky day on the mayoral campaign trail for Kevin Klein

Kevin Klein acknowledges it’s hard to foresee what he’ll wake up to each morning in the final weeks of a mayoral campaign.

But the seasoned politician, who has served as both a city councillor and a provincial cabinet minister, couldn’t have predicted the events — what he describes as “drama” — that unfolded last Sunday.

Fellow mayoral candidate Mike Vogiatzakis accused Klein’s campaign team of offering him a job to drop out of the race, while a guest writer’s column in the Winnipeg Sun that questioned the deaths of Indigenous children at residential schools, just days after the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, sparked condemnation from a prominent Indigenous organization. (Klein is the CEO of the Klein Group, the company that owns the Sun. He has maintained he is not involved in its operations while running for mayor.)

The Free Press had already been scheduled to join Klein on the campaign trail Monday, intending to document a day in the life of the front-running candidate to unseat incumbent Scott Gillingham, before the controversies hit.

Get to know your Jet: Mario Ferraro

A one-on-one conversation with a Winnipeg Jet about the stuff you don't always hear in the media scrum