Meridian Prize launched

Is a better Winnipeg on the horizon?

Four Free Press columnists weigh in on the challenges ahead and how the city can become better.

Court hears woman’s statement detailing pain, trauma after boyfriend shot her in the face

A.W. thought she had found love with Machuor Akau.

That was before Akau put a loaded Luger handgun to the 26-year-old woman’s head last November and told her he should “kill her now.”

Akau shot her, shattering her jaw and embedding teeth in the bones of her mouth and leaving her fighting for her life.

Now A.W. wakes up every morning in pain and sees the scars on her face and neck.

How confusing; seems there’s more than one candidate in Hanover named Shayne Barkman

It’s not entirely clear when or why Hanover trustee Shayne Barkman became one of Manitoba’s best-known anti-LGBTTQ+ crusaders.

Back in 2022, when he ran as a candidate for Hanover school board for the first time, there was nary a hint that socially conservative culture wars were going to be a large part of his identity as an elected official.

In a Steinbach Online profile published before the 2022 municipal elections, Barkman highlighted his background as a successful farmer. He said he was entering politics to be a “listening ear” who could promote understanding.

“I would love to kind of just be a voice of reason amongst all the problems coming down the pipe,” Barkman said

Positive anticipation is growing about major housing developments underway in Winnipeg’s downtown

If traffic is light and the wind is down, Somia Sadiq is able to hear the roar of Winnipeg Jets fans twice: first through her window, then on TV.

From her apartment view high above downtown, she can look out at Graham Avenue’s painted pedestrian landscape, see construction cranes and hear the heavy equipment at work as massive housing projects take shape at The Forks, at what used to be Portage Place shopping centre and at the former Hudson’s Bay building.

Sadiq has lived at 300 Main for 2 1/2 years, a few steps from the city’s famous, windy and reopened-to-pedestrians Portage Avenue intersection. At 42 storeys, it’s the tallest building in Winnipeg.

She is among 18,000 downtown residents who will soon be joined by thousands of others attracted to the city’s core by the new wave of major construction projects.

WSO kicks off season pairing Beethoven, Tchaikovsky

French fries and milkshake, watermelon and feta cheese … Beethoven’s Fifth and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth?

Few events mark the beginning of the classical concert season like the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s season-opener and this year they kick things off with an unusual but satisfying pairing.

“I think that for me, the combination of these two pieces is, first of all, a celebration of great masterworks that have withstood 100 years of being probed by time for their relevancy,” says conductor Daniel Raiskin, the WSO’s music director. “It’s the quality of music, it’s the quality of narrative that attracts us to these masterworks again and again.”

Both symphonies are so hefty and canonical, one might have expected half of the concert would be devoted to a concerto, tone poem or something smaller or lesser known.