Top chefs go for gold

Top chefs go for gold

A half-dozen of Winnipeg’s top chefs will vie for the top step of the podium at this year’s Canada’s Great Kitchen Party, the culinary event and fundraiser formerly known as Gold Medal Plates.

Gold mine accused of sparking wildfire that caused evacuations

A Lynn Lake-area gold mine is being sued over a massive wildfire that burned more than 210,000 acres last spring, causing evacuations as the flames closed in on the community.

Provincial conservation officials alleged in court documents filed last year the wildfire started May 7, 2025, after a controlled burn pile reignited at Alamos Gold Inc., located about 7.5 kilometres northeast of Lynn Lake. The blaze spread to within five kilometres of the small northern community.

A Manitoba government spokesman said Monday the fire remains under investigation.

The wildfire led to the late May 2025 evacuations of Lynn Lake, home to nearly 600 residents and located about 800 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, and Marcel Colomb First Nation.

WestJet cabin crews issue warning

Travellers leaving Winnipeg got an unexpected view Tuesday — a line of silent WestJet flight attendants, wearing sunglasses and holding signs protesting unfair wages.

“Ready to Strike” and “Unpaid Work Won’t Fly!” boards faced passersby hurrying into the Winnipeg Richardson International Airport’s departures level.

Some 66 Manitoba-based WestJet workers stood silently outside the terminal for a half-hour, before noon.

Elsewhere, their colleagues cast strike votes. Some 4,400 flight attendants across Canada began voting July 9; the vote closes Wednesday.

U of W falls back on tuition hikes amid budget crunch

The University of Winnipeg has joined other public post-secondary institutions across the province in hiking tuition rates by four per cent — as high as possible — for the fall.

Domestic fees are increasing by more annually in 2026-27 than they have in eight years in Manitoba.

International rates, which are unregulated and roughly four times those paid by their Canadian peers, are rising even higher.

U of W’s board of regents approved a $180.7-million budget on June 22 that increases costs in undergraduate and graduate programs and phases out “low rate” courses on the downtown campus.

Sheriff’s officer dies in collision with train

Manitoba’s premier says the “service and sacrifice” of a sheriff’s officer who died in a train collision near Portage la Prairie on Tuesday morning will “never be forgotten.”

RCMP were called to the collision between a van and the train on Road 40 West, west of Portage, on Tuesday at 8 a.m.

RCMP say it appears a Manitoba Sheriff Services van collided with the train, causing it to roll and land in the ditch.

The driver, a 28-year-old man from Portage, died at the scene, while a passenger received minor injuries and taken by paramedics to hospital as a precaution.

Bjorck inks three-year, entry-level contract with Jets

Putting pen to paper was merely the next step in the journey for Viggo Bjorck.

Now that the eighth overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft has inked his entry-level deal with the Winnipeg Jets, the real fun begins.

This is standard operating procedure and was basically a formality after Bjorck’s club team Djurgardens announced publicly over the weekend that the skilled forward was leaving the Swedish Hockey League to pursue NHL opportunities.

Bjorck signed his three-year pact on Monday and it carries a cap hit of US $1.075 million in the NHL, with the ability to make another US$1 million per season if he hits his performance bonuses.