Ottawa urges Canadians to leave Lebanon while they can due to escalating violence

Mayoral candidates share faves, test knowledge in Free Press culture quiz

It’s been said that politics is downwind of culture. However true that is, where politicians stand on hot-button cultural debates such as artificial intelligence, whether they prefer sports over arts and what local restaurants they patronize can offer a window into their sensibilities and outlooks.

The Free Press invited the four leading mayoral candidates among decided voters — according to a recent Abacus poll — to take part in a cultural quiz. (Kevin Klein, who was polling second, did not respond.) While most of the questions are lighthearted, they speak to some of the personalities behind the heated rivalries over budgets, buses, business taxation and beyond.

What was the last book you finished?

● Scott Gillingham: I’m almost done Winnipeg author Paul Vincent Jacuzzi’s book Blind Eyes. It’s a Dalton Drake novel.

Kinew won’t budge on opposition to criminalizing residential school denialism

Premier Wab Kinew stood by his opposition to the proposed criminalization of residential school denialism Wednesday, after some First Nations leaders criticized his earlier comments and asked him to reconsider.

Kinew said he doesn’t think Canada should make residential school denialism a crime, nor does he think it’s feasible to do, and he’d prefer to see it combated with education.

“When somebody has a question or wants to make a statement from a place of ignorance, the response isn’t to try to criminalize,” he told reporters.

“The response should be to try to heal whatever is going on with them that would cause them to say something hurtful, to try and educate whatever they lack in terms of knowledge about the true history of our country, and ultimately to find a way for us to all live together.”

Jets salvage point in Chicago

CHICAGO — Ever have one of those days where you should have just stayed in bed? That pretty much sums up how Thursday went for the Winnipeg Jets here in the Windy City.

It began with the bad news that top defenceman Josh Morrissey’s wrist issue is more serious than feared, and he likely won’t be back in the lineup any time soon. Then, veteran forward Vlad Namestnikov, coming off his best game of the young season, crashed into the boards at the end of morning skate, suffering an upper-body injury that sent him to the sidelines.

Off to the game itself, which began with Dylan DeMelo hitting the post on the first shift, a parade of Winnipeg penalties helping the home team build a healthy early lead and, last and certainly least, an eventual 4-3 overtime loss at United Center.

It actually could have been worse.

Police HQ report to be released Monday

The province confirmed Friday the final report of the public inquiry into the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters will be released on Monday.

The release will take place at a media conference with commissioner of the Winnipeg Police Service Headquarters inquiry Garth Smorang, scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday at the Manitoba Legislative Building.

The $2.3-million public inquiry took place over 27.5 hearing dates between February and May.

The city has faced myriad problems related to the WPS headquarters, a former Canada Post office building and warehouse at Smith Street and Graham Avenue, for more than a decade.

Chief says minister offered money to remove highway checkstop

The chief of the Bloodvein River First Nation says a Manitoba cabinet minister offered up to $250,000 for economic development as he was trying to persuade her to remove a highway checkstop that has outraged hunters.

‘They need action now’: fed-up nurses grey-list Seven Oaks hospital over safety concerns

Nurses are officially being discouraged from taking shifts at Seven Oaks General Hospital owing to long-standing safety concerns.

The Manitoba Nurses Union said Friday it had officially enacted a grey-listing — a union tactic aimed at pressing health authorities to take action in response to members’ concerns.

Union members working at the hospital voted 98 per cent in June in favour of the action.

“Nurses are describing shifts where they simply do not have enough staff to provide the care patients need. They have raised these concerns repeatedly. They’re done with delays. They need action now,” MNU president Darlene Jackson said in a news release.