Grab some snacks, and catch a movie on us

Well-known Brandon-born rock drummer Sutherland dies at age 58

Chris (Suds) Sutherland, a Brandon-born drummer who was the driving force behind many top artists in the Canadian music industry, has died at 58.

Sutherland is widely praised throughout North America as a talented percussionist with an extensive discography.

He performed with such Canadian music legends as Kim Mitchell, Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Streetheart and others.

Sutherland brought presence and “plow” when he played, Tina Faye said about her husband.

Disgraced former law dean arrested, facing extradition to Canada

Jonathan Black-Branch, the disgraced former dean of law at the University of Manitoba, has been arrested in Europe and is awaiting extradition to Canada on fraud charges, Winnipeg police say.

Black-Branch, who failed to defend himself in a lawsuit filed by the U of M and his disbarment proceedings, was ordered in May 2025 to repay more than $682,000 in misspent expense funds.

Winnipeg police confirmed his arrest and pending extradition Wednesday morning. “The extradition process is ongoing,” police said.

Black-Branch left the university in 2020 amid allegations he had misspent public dollars and schemed to evade oversight while running Robson Hall from 2016 to 2020.

Grab some snacks, and catch a movie on us

Canada’s weather-predicting groundhogs may have called for an early spring this past Tuesday, but we in Winnipeg know to expect at least six more weeks of winter. With that in mind, the Free Press has planned another edition of our virtual viewing party series, WFP Movie Night, which will allow you to watch a Manitoba-made film for free on our website from the comfort (and warmth) of your own home.

Our next event will take place Thursday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. CT, and we’ll be screening the romantic comedy I Propose We Never See Each Other Again After Tonight, written and directed by Winnipeg’s Sean Garrity. The film is set in Winnipeg and tells the story of a developing, and increasingly complicated, relationship between a Filipina girl (Hera Nalam) and a Mennonite boy (Kristian Jordan).

While theatres are still closed and gatherings are still very limited, we hope you’ll join us for this interactive, online movie event which will allow you to connect with others who are watching the film, including a few Free Press staffers, as well as cast and crew from the film, by using the real-time chat tool available to you during the screening.

To participate in our movie night, all you have to do is register your email address at www.winnipegfreepress.com/movie-night. We will send you all the need-to-know information, including the password you’ll need to access the film on event night.

Revealing statements by Trump about courts

Analyzing the utterances of U.S. President Donald Trump may seem like the ultimate sort of mug’s game — they are varied, contradictory, rambling, pugilistic, sometimes wheedling and the list goes on.

Manitoba students able to opt out of classes with sensitive lessons on sex, drug use

Manitoba’s premier pledges to continue allowing parents to pull their kids from health class if content — be it related to human sexuality, substance use or otherwise — clashes with personal beliefs.

Wab Kinew said Tuesday the government’s overhaul of phys-ed and health curriculum in Manitoba schools won’t impact the ability for parents to opt-out of a lesson and deliver material as they see fit.

“As a parent, you are your child’s first and most important teacher and that will always be the case,” Kinew said, surrounded by hundreds of teenagers on the football field outside Kelvin High School during an announcement Tuesday.

More than 100 schools are taking part in a voluntary pilot project this fall. It’s the first systematic review of this curriculum in decades. The changes to kindergarten-to-Grade 12 courses will be mandated to all schools in September 2028.