Husband no longer buying wife’s penchant for lying

Piece of magic history disappears

A piece of Winnipeg’s magic history has vanished, and internationally renowned escape artist Dean Gunnarson is offering a $500 reward to anyone who can make it reappear.

The plaque marked the birthplace of what has become the world’s largest organization of professional and amateur magicians, the International Brotherhood of Magicians, which was founded in Winnipeg more than a century ago.

Gunnarson said fellow magician and local magic historian Bruce Thompson discovered the disappearance Tuesday while on his way to work.

Thompson returned to inspect the site and found what appeared to be evidence it had been forcibly removed.

Gang member who shot rival, bystander back in prison after release revoked

A Winnipeg man who shot a rival teenage gangster and an innocent 11-year-old bystander at the crowded Red River Exhibition more than four years ago has been sent back to prison.

Mocree Chuck Scatch-Dubour, now in his early 20s, left prison in April on statutory release on his 5 1/2-year federal sentence for the 2022 shooting. Scatch-Dubour was sentenced to the prison term as an adult in the spring of 2023 after pleading guilty to discharge of a firearm with intent to wound, aggravated assault and possession of a restricted firearm.

By law, most federal inmates automatically receive statutory release after two-thirds of their sentence, if they have not already been paroled.

Parole Board of Canada officials formally revoked Scatch-Dubour’s release this month after he unlawfully left his halfway house in June.

Riding the Unity Bus to rally support for Canada in Alberta

WAINWRIGHT, Alta. — The Unity Bus arrives right on time, pulling into a parking lot on the edge of this town of about 6,600 people close to the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. As the vehicle slows to a halt, resplendent in its patriotic red-and-white paint, a small group of supporters stand waiting, decked in their own maple leaf garb.

The Unity Bus’s doors open and former Alberta deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk bounds to the ground. The supporters, volunteers with Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian campaign, welcome him with applause; he greets them with open arms. He knows many by name, having been to Wainwright four times; some of them fondly call him “the boss.”

“Do you need some stickers?” he asks. “Do you need some swag to give away?”

It’s a chilly Thanksgiving Monday morning on the eastern edge of Alberta. A sharp wind nips at exposed skin and drab grey clouds hang low in the sky. Such weather does not encourage high spirits, but Lukaszuk and these volunteers can’t afford to let theirs falter: in just one week, on Oct. 19, Albertans will vote on a historic question on whether to remain in Canada.

Letters, Oct. 13

The major assumption Manitoba Hydro undertakes is the weather. Hydro projected a $214 million profit for the 2025-26 fiscal year. On Sept. 29, it reported a $446 million loss. It took on additional debt due to $751 million in operating losses. In addition, Hydro stated the fiscal results for 2025-26 were “significantly influenced by circumstances largely beyond Hydro’s control.”

Late philanthropist, family fill Harvest’s Empty Bowls with record-setting $5-M donation

It was a record-breaking night for Harvest Manitoba made possible by a genuine Winnipeg hero and his family.

The organization’s annual Empty Bowls Celebrity Auction Dinner on Thursday raised $6.5 million to support Manitobans facing hunger and food insecurity.

And it was a $5-million legacy donation from late city philanthropist Doug Harvey and his family that will see the event go down in the history books as the largest gala fundraising total ever recorded in Manitoba.

“There was literally nothing that lit my dad up more than contributing himself, but even more so, inspiring others to give,” his daughter Lauren Harvey said Friday.