Mauritius suspends access to social media ahead of parliamentary elections

Outbreak should never have happened

The headline offered a vague sense that something had been accomplished, but it most certainly did not describe anything worth celebrating:

“Manitoba declares measles outbreak over.”

The news item in the Oct. 17 Free Press noted provincial public health officials had confirmed Manitoba’s last laboratory-confirmed case of measles was identified in August, and that the absence of any new cases since had allowed for the aforementioned declaration.

The end of the outbreak — which began in February 2025 and included a significant stretch this year during which Manitoba experienced more measles cases than any other province — is certainly worth noting. But it bears reminding that the real story here is that this province, and others across Canada, experienced a resurgence of this highly communicable but successfully eradicated disease in the first place.

Final legal judgment rendered in Canadian Wheat Board saga

A judge has thrown out a class-action lawsuit that sought damages for certain grain farmers in relation to the end of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly by the federal government.

It’s the last of extensive litigation over the dissolution of the board.

Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin, in a decision this month, dismissed farmer Edward Andrew Dennis’s 2017 civil claim against the federal attorney general and G3 Global Grain Group, the successor to the wheat board.

The wheat board was created in 1935 as a voluntary marketing program and transformed into a compulsory marketing agency in which farmers were required to sell their wheat and barley to it.

Winnipeg Jets trade Connor Hellebuyck to New Jersey Devils

Connor Hellebuyck finally got his wish. Kevin Cheveldayoff finally got an offer he couldn’t refuse. And a long-running sports soap opera has finally ended.

The Winnipeg Jets pulled off a blockbuster deal Friday morning, shipping their disgruntled franchise goaltender to the New Jersey Devils for a package including four players and two draft picks.

Although they liked the return, nobody within the organization was popping champagne. This was, in many ways, a dark but necessary day.

“It certainly hasn’t been fun. There’s no question about it. But at the end of the day, Connor made his choice. And, as an organization, we had to act accordingly and we did,” the general manager said during an afternoon news conference inside Canada Life Centre.

Province orders ban on private teacher-student messaging

Manitoba teachers are no longer allowed to text or use social media to contact a student – regardless of whether they coach a school sports team or supervise other activities outside typical instruction times.

Klein promises to freeze property taxes, charge fee to hire more police

Kevin Klein would freeze property taxes next year but charge homeowners a new, separate $3.99 monthly police fee, if he’s elected mayor of Winnipeg next week.

Klein released his costed platform Friday, which calls for the new charge. He said it would last at least four years but is not meant to be permanent.

“I don’t see this as saddling this with somebody for the next decade or 20 years. I see this as something we have to do today, to get more police officers on to the streets, that we are, right now, desperately in need of,” he said.

The revenue would allow the city to hire 100 more police officers, with 50 new uniformed cops added in each of the next two budgets, said Klein.