Selkirk celebrates Burden of Truth boost

Advertisement

Advertise with us

The city of Selkirk has a new flag flying above its waterfront, but the name on it won’t be familiar to most — yet.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/01/2018 (3142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The city of Selkirk has a new flag flying above its waterfront, but the name on it won’t be familiar to most — yet.

The flag has been raised to honour the town of Millwood, the fictional locale in the new CBC series Burden of Truth, a legal drama filmed in Selkirk sporadically over the summer and fall of 2017.

With Wednesday’s première of the first season less than a week away, the city wanted to celebrate in a unique way.

CBC
Selkirk’s Riverside Grill is the backdrop to many scenes in CBC’s Burden of Truth, starring Kristin Kreuk as lawyer Joanna Hanley.
CBC Selkirk’s Riverside Grill is the backdrop to many scenes in CBC’s Burden of Truth, starring Kristin Kreuk as lawyer Joanna Hanley.

The flag was raised on Friday afternoon and a reception followed at the nearby Riverside Grill, a much-beloved local diner that has undergone recent renovations and refurbishments, largely funded by the production.

On première day, Jan. 10, a red-carpet event and invite-only viewing will take place at the Selkirk Boston Pizza, with proceeds going to Selkirk Biz and the Selkirk Friendship Centre.

“We want them to know that we appreciate what they’ve done for the community and we appreciate them coming here,” Selkirk Mayor Larry Johannson said of the flag-raising.

“We’re happy. We’re in good shape here, looking at ourselves as a bit of a Hollywood North. It’s a pretty nice feeling for our community.”

This isn’t the first time Selkirk has been chosen as the location for a television or movie production, but Burden of Truth, which stars Kristin Kreuk (Smallville, Beauty and the Beast) and Peter Mooney (Rookie Blue), has provided a more significant and long-lasting economic impact. Filming of the series has funnelled nearly $1 million into the city in the form of employment, location rentals, hotels, food, shopping, gas and, of course, the renovation work done on Riverside Grill.

“This was a big, big one. This was a huge impact on the town,” Johannson said.

Series producer Kyle Irving, of Winnipeg-based production company Eagle Vision Inc., said Selkirk was “very much in line” with what the writers of the show were looking for, esthetically speaking, and that it was a dream to work with the people and the city.

“The people of Selkirk were very welcoming and accommodating to our needs, and I think there was a general excitement to what we were doing there,” he said.

“We tried really hard to give as much back to the community as we could, and inform them about what we were doing and keep them involved as much as we could… because the show kind of uniquely uses their home as the home for the fictional town and that’s an exciting opportunity for us as the producers of the show, but also for them to have their community be seen through the eyes of the television audience, nationwide and internationally.”

Manitoba has had a banner year for film and television production, with production volume reaching $139 million during the past fiscal year (the most in a decade), according to the Manitoba Film and Music. Much of that action took place in rural Manitoba, with 40 per cent of all shooting days happening outside of Winnipeg.

Johannson said it has been an overwhelmingly positive experience for Selkirk and encourages other rural locations to say, ‘Yes,’ if they are asked to be part of a film or television production.

“I would just say if any community that hasn’t been approached gets approached, embrace it. The production guys couldn’t be better, it’s an exciting few weeks or months for the community,” he said. “Bring on Season 2!”

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @NireRabel

Erin Lebar

Erin Lebar
Manager of audience engagement for news

Erin Lebar spends her time thinking of, and implementing, ways to improve the interaction and connection between the Free Press newsroom and its readership.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

‘No CUSMA, no booze-ma’: Kinew

Malak Abas 4 minute read Preview

‘No CUSMA, no booze-ma’: Kinew

Malak Abas 4 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026

With the next round of tariffs set to hit Canadian goods next week, and a new report suggesting Manitobans could be severely impacted if the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement on trade breaks down, Premier Wab Kinew pledged Wednesday to keep working with the U.S. ambassador — and keep American booze off Manitoba shelves, for now.

Read
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026

PCs say Hutterite colonies singled out by Bill 21

Alex Lambert 4 minute read Preview

PCs say Hutterite colonies singled out by Bill 21

Alex Lambert 4 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

SOURIS — Members of Hutterite colonies in the province took aim at the NDP government’s proposed changes to drinking water legislation during a public meeting Thursday in Souris.

The meeting was hosted by Progressive Conservative MLA Colleen Robbins (Spruce Woods) to hear from rural residents about their concerns over Bill 21, which the government says will improve oversight on wells and other water systems in the province.

“There’s not enough clarity, but I feel that the overreach that this bill will bring is not clearly defined, and it could have a lot of negative consequences,” attendee Gilbert Hofer, a member of Green Acres colony near Wawanesa, said after the meeting, which drew about 20 people.

The legislation would allow public health officers to designate the type of water source based on its intended use, water quality and use duration rather than solely the number of connections it has.

Read
2:01 AM CDT

Europe anxious as ever about immigration

Kyle Volpi Hiebert 5 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

It was only a matter of time before immigration would again panic Europe. The issue has roiled the continent’s politics ever since its 2015 migrant crisis, when 1.3 million unauthorized migrants crossed its borders that summer. They exposed a broken immigration system in the process, triggering a populist backlash that hasn’t dimmed.

All those same tensions were reignited in late July, when 72,000 migrants converged on the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in just 24 hours. The city — a holdover from Spain’s colonial era — is Europe’s only land border with Africa, nestled next to Morocco. It was almost instantly overrun.

Dozens of people died in the chaos, while the reasons for the sudden influx remain unknown. However, virtually all the arrivals were sent back to Morocco almost immediately; some spent a few days in makeshift holding centres. None were recorded as finding their way to mainland Europe.

Still, the episode inflamed divisions in a region caught in existential limbo. Ultranationalist political parties are ascendant — yet low birth rates and stagnant productivity mean Europe’s future largely hinges on accepting more newcomers.

Strike mandate for Dynacare workers

Free Press staff 2 minute read Preview

Strike mandate for Dynacare workers

Free Press staff 2 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 PM CDT

Nearly 350 laboratory technicians and technologists at Dynacare’s 22 laboratory and health services centres in Manitoba have voted in favour of a strike.

The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, which represents the employees, said in a news release that 99 per cent of members who voted supported going on strike. A strike notice has not been served to the employer. If and when that occurs, the union is required to give two weeks’ notice.

The collective agreement between the union and Dynacare ended March 31. Negotiations between the parties began in February and they have been in mediation since July 15. They’ve been unable to reach a tentative agreement through mediation, and there are no further bargaining or mediation dates scheduled, the union said in a news release.

Dynacare became Manitoba’s only private outpatient provider for laboratory services in 2017, after purchasing competitor Unicity Labs. The union said Manitoba government records show Dynacare members completed more than 15 million laboratory tests in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Read
Yesterday at 2:01 PM CDT

Dazed and confused stoner comedy hard to get right

Alison Gillmor 4 minute read Preview

Dazed and confused stoner comedy hard to get right

Alison Gillmor 4 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

Stoner comedy has always been kind of a dude thing. Think of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Cheech & Chong, Ice Cube’s Friday franchise, Harold & Kumar, basically any movie with the young Seth Rogen.

Screenwriter Dylan Meyer (Moxie) provides a much-needed gender swap in her directorial debut, giving us Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat as ride-or-die roommates Frankie and Molly. Dipping in and out of the gig economy and perpetually broke, they share their Los Angeles bungalow with two cats, a life-size cardboard cutout of Celine Dion and an enormously complicated “bong-a-tron” that takes up most of the living room.

Finally, finally, it’s women who get to be messy, aimless and really high.

Unfortunately, stoner movies — no matter the gender — are surprisingly hard to get right. The Wrong Girls is sweet and shaggy and intermittently funny, but Meyer ends up struggling with the genre’s common buzzkills.

Read
2:01 AM CDT

‘Disrespectful’: residents frustrated after Wyatt arrives hour late to committee meeting

Joyanne Pursaga 3 minute read Preview

‘Disrespectful’: residents frustrated after Wyatt arrives hour late to committee meeting

Joyanne Pursaga 3 minute read Yesterday at 4:37 PM CDT

Several Winnipeggers attending a city development hearing on Thursday expressed frustration that one councillor arrived about an hour late, delaying the matter from being heard.

Coun. Russ Wyatt, who continues to attend city hall while facing criminal charges, began participating in the 9:30 a.m. East Kildonan-Transcona community committee meeting at 10:35 a.m.

A resident who hoped to speak at the meeting about a development plan in south Transcona noted the tardiness led the committee to bump the topic down on its agenda, while dozens waited to speak on it.

Christina Pyra eventually opted to leave city hall instead of waiting for her turn to make a presentation, to avoid missing a work commitment.

Read
Yesterday at 4:37 PM CDT