Drumroll, please: School of Rock celebrates 10-year mark

Eliminating short-term sick notes ‘big step forward’: Doctors Manitoba

Manitoba doctors will no longer be required to issue sick notes for short-term employee absences due to illness or injury, starting Thursday.

The new provincial legislation, which officially passed in June, will only allow employers to request the medical documents when an employee has been absent for more than a week or if they’ve called in sick 10 or more times in a calendar year.

Dr. Nichelle Desilets, Doctors Manitoba board chair, said the legislation will free up time for physicians to concentrate on medical appointments and called the new rules among the strongest in Canada.

“What may be a small change in the labour code can be a big step forward on improving access to medical care for all Manitobans and using our health care resources wisely,” she said during a news conference Tuesday.

What’s up

Connection: Recent Work from Artist Moms 2.0Community Art Gallery at the Pavilion, Assiniboine Park, 55 Pavilion Cres.Artist talk Saturday, 2 p.m.FreeWhat does it mean to mother in a time of global, social and environmental uncertainty? What does it mean to be the village?

This group exhibition featuring 20 Winnipeg artist mothers affiliated with Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art connects the individual experiences of motherhood with broader concerns, exploring themes of memory, nostalgia, grief, loss and care through embroidery, painting, printmaking, poetry, sculpture, installation and mixed media.

“My work is both personal and political, concerned not only with our responsibilities to our own families but also with what it means to be a caregiver in a world threatened by greed, violence and environmental harm,” said artist and group organizer Allison Moore in a release.

The gallery will host a series of artist talks on Saturdays, Oct. 3, 17 and 24, from 2 to 4 p.m. Connection is on view until Nov. 22.

Port of Churchill signs agreement with Dutch port

Arctic Gateway Group, operator of the Port of Churchill, has signed an agreement with the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands to attract business and strengthen supply chains linking Western Canada and Europe.

The agreement enables the two ports to work together to develop new trade in critical minerals and energy products, connect Canadian producers with European buyers, and identify opportunities to improve the supply chain from Western Canadian resource projects through Churchill and into European markets.

The Port of Rotterdam is Europe’s largest port and home to more than 3,000 businesses across its industrial complex, serving as a major gateway for critical raw materials and energy.

Meanwhile, the Port of Churchill has been identified as a transformative national strategy for Canada and is emerging as a northern trade corridor connecting Western Canada’s resources to global markets.

Acquisition of former residential school grounds will help educate future generations: premier

Premier Wab Kinew says a former Brandon-area campground acquired by the province will help educate future generations about the horrors of residential schools.

“We live in an era where people are trying to deny what happened in residential schools,” Kinew said during a Tuesday afternoon visit to Turtle Crossing Campground, near the former Brandon Indian Residential School. “It’s an important part of our national history, and keeping that truth alive.”

Kinew officially announced the province’s plan Tuesday, in partnership with the City of Brandon, to acquire and protect the site where the bodies of more than 50 Indigenous children are located.

The premier said the property has “huge national significance” for education about residential school history because it is one of the “most documented” in the country. He carried photographs, and some 20th century newspaper clippings from the Brandon Sun around the site Tuesday.

‘We’ll stand for the children’: crowds gather for Orange Shirt Day in Winnipeg

A sea of people clad in orange shirts and waving flags marched through downtown Winnipeg to honour those who survived and died in residential schools.

Drumroll, please: School of Rock celebrates 10-year mark

It’s been a decade of treble and bass at the School of Rock and the music academy on Corydon Avenue is gearing up to celebrate the major milestone with an all-ages anniversary show.

After 10 years of teaching Winnipeggers, both young and old, the art of rock ’n’ roll, the school is preparing to drum up even more excitement as it marches towards another decade of helping people play music together.

The program — which takes place May 16 at Sidestage, 700 Osborne St. — features live music performed by the talented artists and bands from the school. Ticket prices are donation-based, with all proceeds going toward supporting the school house band’s upcoming Canada Fest tour in Regina.

The school has been welcoming children as young as four, as well as youthful grown-ups in their 60s, to group and individual classes since opening its doors in 2016.