On the night table: Colson Whitehead

50 years of rare tall grass prairie celebrated

Kristin Bestvater is always glad when she heads to Winnipeg’s St. James neighbourhood and visits the Living Prairie Museum.

“It’s beautiful,” Bestvater said of the 13-hectare site, which is one of the last remaining tall grass prairies in North America. “I don’t know how many other cities would have something like this.”

The Island Lakes resident and her nine-year-old son were among the hundreds of people who gathered at the museum on Saturday to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Designated a park in 1974, it officially became the Living Prairie Museum in 1976 with the opening of an interpretive centre which houses a gallery of exhibits, a gift shop and an observation deck.

A measure of hope a decade after senseless death, injustice

I’m a few hundred kilometres from the farm near Biggar, Sask. — the place where 22-year old Colten Boushie from Cree Red Pheasant First Nation was shot and killed by farmer Gerald Stanley precisely 10 years ago.

“You need to remind people about the 10-year anniversary,” a nearby, rural school principal tells me at the education conference I just finished speaking at.

“That death is a wound that continues to bleed in all of us,” a principal from Regina adds. “I hear about it from our students all the time.”

On Aug. 9, 2016, Boushie’s death entered the Canadian consciousness, representing what then-Saskatoon mayor Charlie Clark declared “a defining moment for this community and this country.”

Main Street restaurant Boujee burns for the second time in one week

A former restaurant on Main Street is set to be demolished after a fire broke out for the second time in less than a week.

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews responded to reports of a fire at Boujee Restaurant and Bar, a vacant, single-storey building on the 100 block of Main Street shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday. The same building was most recently damaged in a fire last Sunday.

At the scene, crews found heavy smoke coming from the building. After attacking the fire using aerial ladders that sprayed water from above, firefighters arranged an emergency demolition of the building. Demolition is expected to be completed today, the WFPS said in a news release.

No injuries were reported and the fire is under investigation.

Fish go cold as Saltdogs put end to franchise record win streak

The Goldeyes went cold for the first time in 13 games Saturday night in Lincoln.

The Saltdogs grabbed a 12-2 win over the visitors, stopping the club’s franchise win streak record at 13.

The Fish still boast a 40-32 record with 27 games left in the regular season. Last year represented a major step back, with a 41-58 record, which led to missing the playoffs entirely. This season, the club has its sights set on first place in the division.

The Goldeyes wrap up the road series on Sunday, with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m. The Fish are back at Blue Cross Park on Tuesday, hosting the Sioux Falls Canaries to begin a six-game homestand.

Livestreamed mental-health meltdown underscores medium’s disturbing decline

On Tuesday evening, a well-known celebrity blogger, best known by the nom de plume Perez Hilton, opened up his TikTok account and began a livestream from his Miami home. What unfolded over the next 30 minutes horrified all who witnessed it — and should force the rest of us to take a very sober look at the ways social media can harm.