Take mom’s blond-siding comments in stride

Truck carrying mail, milk and alcohol to isolated N.B. island held at U.S. border

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND - A truck carrying supplies for an isolated New Brunswick island linked to the rest of Canada by U.S. roads was turned back at the international border Tuesday, says the local member of Parliament. 

New Brunswick South MP John Williamson said U.S. border officials stopped the truck bound for Campobello Island, N.B., because it was carrying milk and alcohol. Importing those items into the United States is prohibited under new rules that went into effect Tuesday as part of the ongoing trade war.

The only land link to the picturesque island, best known as the summer retreat of former U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is a bridge to the town of Lubec, Maine. From there it's an 80-kilometres drive to the next border crossing at Calais, Maine, where the truck was stopped.

Williamson said the truck typically travels to the island every weekday, carrying mail and goods for the island's less than 1,000 residents under a special Canada Border Services Agency licence. The truck is sealed with a customs tag guarantying it will not stop on the way to the island.

Manitoba PCs choose Narth as interim leader; ‘deeply hurt’ Khan blasts former caucus colleagues

Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative caucus chose MLA Konrad Narth as interim party leader Tuesday to replace Obby Khan, who quit a day earlier after he said he was stabbed in the back by a small group of caucus members plotting in secret to oust him.

Woman took ‘meaningful’ responsibility after disposing of body: lawyer

A woman who was threatened with death if she didn’t help dispose the body of a Mexican man murdered in the basement of a North End home should serve no more jail time, a judge has been told.

Devlin Langlois, 25, has pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to murder in the March 2025 killing of 28-year-old Diego Moscoza.

“By pleading guilty, Ms. Langlois has already taken meaningful accountability for her actions,” defence lawyer Joshua Rogala told King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond at a sentencing hearing Monday.

He urged the judge to sentence Langlois to the equivalent of 14 months already served, plus two years supervised probation.

Winnipeg’s challenge: preparing for weather extremes

A new United Nations report warns the world will exceed the 1.5 C Paris limit by 2030.

Winnipeg’s string of extreme weather events in recent years — this summer’s intense rainstorms that caused flash flooding, basement damage, power outages, prolonged heat waves, last summer’s wildfires, and the freakish October 2019 wet snowstorm — underscores the urgent need for stronger emergency plans and climate resilience in the face of the UN’s new report.

As the city enters an unknown era from increwasing extreme weather events, it must also confront this haunting truth or face future unprepared consequences.

Winnipeg faces persistent challenges, including limited library hours during the summer (they could act as cooling places for the most vulnerable), and gaps in public and active transportation which make it harder for many residents to reach essential services.

As political jockeying begins, don’t forget job No. 1

The goal, for all parties in a democracy, is to make the best legislation and bring in the strongest policy forward for voters and citizens.

And every party has a role to play in that effort.

Governments set policy and bring forward legislation. Official oppositions challenge that process with the goal of identifying weaknesses or flaws in proposed laws, bringing forward the positions of groups affected by proposed legislative change, and generally are supposed to bring a critical lens to the process in an effort to improve the final result.

Third parties bring forward still further viewpoints and analysis, often from a different political bent, but valuable insight and viewpoints nonetheless.

Ferraro gets call-up to the Jets

Landon Ferraro vividly recalls the moment his NHL career came to an extremely painful end — Oct. 20, 2017, in downtown Winnipeg.

“My last play was a breakaway on Connor Hellebuyck,” Ferraro told the Free Press this week.

“I tried to poke the puck past the first D. It was me and (Dustin) Byfuglien chasing it down. I thought he was going to throw me across the ice, so I tried to cut in on him, and he moved. I overextended, and I literally ripped my abductor off the bone and gave myself a hernia.”

Ferraro — at the time playing forward for the visiting Minnesota Wild — said he managed to get off a weak shot that hit the Jets goaltender square in the chest. But his 77th appearance in the big leagues would be his last following previous stops with Detroit (which drafted him 32nd overall in 2009) and Boston.