Setting the stage

Artist Bistyek enjoys the freedom of living a creative life in full colour

In pants nearly as wide at the ankle as a downtown sidewalk, Bistyek cuts a striking silhouette on his daily marches through the Exchange District, an area the painter has made his muse since arriving in Winnipeg nine years ago.

He likes it here, loves it even, but as he’s established himself as one of the city’s most vibrant visual artists — with a street-honed style that pays homage to both Japanese anime series Dragon Ball Z and graffiti-inspired American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat — Bistyek won’t forget where he came from: he can’t.

Though the 30-year-old has built an enviable life here, he’s eminently aware that his circumstances are defined as much by sheer luck as they are by determination or talent. When he was growing up in Afrin, a village in Syria, his family was torn apart by civil war and discrimination against the Kurdish minority under the rule of dictator Bashar al Assad.

“I was living in Lebanon as a refugee for seven years, with a big group of friends, but day after day they started to cross the sea from Turkey or Greece. Some of them made it, some of them did not,” says the artist born Ormeya Zagros. “I turned to Mom and said, ‘I want to go across the sea. I cannot stay here. I don’t see a future here. I don’t see opportunities. There is so much discrimination and racism. I cannot build a life.’”

First-aid volunteers treat folk fest attendees suffering from heat

Shade was at a premium at Birds Hill Provincial Park over the weekend as Winnipeg Folk Festival goers tried to keep cool during an extreme heat wave.

Heat warnings were issued across southern Manitoba and temperatures peaked at 35 C Sunday afternoon.

First-aid volunteers were seen administering cold compresses to several overheated attendees. STARS air ambulance responded to a medical call at the park on Saturday night, but did not transport the patient to hospital. By Sunday at noon, EMS had been called to the festival nine times.

“This is not an unusual number of calls for us or other events of our size,” festival executive director Valerie Shantz said.

Letters, July 14

I commend James Wilt on his column on Manitoba Hydro’s options for increased electrical generation. For years Manitoba Hydro has put too many eggs in one basket by relying almost entirely on water power for electricity.

Former Manitoba MP Inky Mark charged with firearms offences; more than 400 weapons seized from home

A former member of Parliament from Manitoba has been charged after a stockpile of ammunition and firearms — including an antique cannon — and $300,000 in cash were seized from a Dauphin home last week.

Manitoba RCMP charged Inky Mark, 78, with a dozen firearms-related charges, including firearms trafficking, possession of property obtained by crime, unsafe storage and careless use of a firearm.

In total, RCMP seized 439 firearms from Mark’s property, Mounties said at a news conference Monday morning.

It is expected to take investigators weeks to sort through the arsenal and determine how many of the weapons were legally possessed, but police have already identified three guns that are believed to have been illegally trafficked, and one that had a tampered serial number, RCMP Cpl. Barry Kirby said.

Carney trumps Trump with Gordie Howe bridge deal

The dispute over the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge was always and only going to end when U.S. President Donald Trump could declare he had got the better deal.

Even when he didn’t.

Trump gleefully posted on social media Saturday that after refusing to allow the completed bridge between Windsor and Detroit to open in late June, he got a “MUCH BETTER DEAL” from Prime Minister Mark Carney. Political opponents and a handful of opinion writers rushed to shake their heads at how Carney was used and abused by the big fella in Washington.

It’s not surprising that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre would do an end-zone dance as he lamented Carney’s “terrible deal; the leader of the official opposition’s default setting is “condemn.”

Name-change sex abuser pleads guilty

A convicted child sex predator who changed his name before going on to abuse another victim is now facing a likely 15-year prison sentence.

Ryan Knight, 44, pleaded guilty Monday morning to sexual interference and making child sexual abuse and exploitation material.

Knight remains in custody and is expected to be sentenced in the fall, when Crown and defence lawyers will jointly recommend the repeat offender serve 15 years in prison.

Knight, who was born Ryan Gabourie, has been in custody since last July when he was charged with sex crimes involving a 13-year-old boy.