They’re all winners

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: There are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions today. The moon is in Pisces.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Keep your pockets open because money might come to you. Or perhaps you’ll receive favours, tips, an advantage or a gift? This is also an affectionate influence that can promote flirtations and romance. Be patient with family.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Even dozen running for mayor as nomination deadline passes

It’s official — a dozen people are running to become Winnipeg’s next mayor.

The deadline to both register to run as a candidate in October’s municipal election and file nomination papers was 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The final list of mayoral candidates includes: incumbent Scott Gillingham, Kevin Klein, Brad Gross, Mazher Alam, Mike Vogiatzakis, Christopher Clacio, Umar Hayat, Don Woodstock, Joshua Pagdato, Johnny Calderon, Noah Redden, and Tracey Drexler.

A total of 17 had registered to run but several either withdrew or did not meet the requirements to continue. Those included: Zachary Uminski, Ed Ackerman, Gagandeep Bawa, Abdel-Kareem Chehadi and Joaquin Sandul.

Relief, reproach from law school staff after disgraced ex-dean’s arrest in France

The overseas arrest of a disgraced former law dean who defrauded the University of Manitoba out of more than $600,000 is being met both with relief and renewed frustration in the local legal community.

Seven Oaks tour blends ghastly theatrics and local history

History buffs and ghostbusters will be exploring one of Winnipeg’s oldest homes and grounds by candlelight this weekend.

“Spirits of Seven Oaks brings together two things already woven into the place: history and haunting. You’re not just going to hear history, you get to walk through it,” says Tracey Turner, curator and manager of Seven Oaks House Museum.

For more than a decade the national historic site has hosted similar events during the early autumn lead up to Halloween. In the past, the first half, which takes place in rooms throughout Seven Oaks House — the oldest standing home in Winnipeg — were led by a museum interpreter, while the outside portion is led by Matthew Komus, author of Haunted Winnipeg and Haunted Manitoba.

“With ghost stories, I’ve always been interested in tying it to the place,” says Komus, whose book Haunted Winnipeg is now in its ninth printing. “It’s part of who we are. That’s something that we really focus on. Most of the stories we talk about, it’s about a rural settlement. We’re on the estate, though a lot of it is a neighbour.”

They’re all winners

THE winner of this year’s $50,000 Sobey Art Award was announced Wednesday night at a gala event hosted by the Winnipeg Art Gallery, but I’m writing this from the comfortable ignorance of several days ago. Frankly, I prefer the view from here.

Selections for prizes like the Sobey (the visual art equivalent of the Giller or Polaris awards, basically) tell us something about trends and institutional preferences, but it’s more rewarding to see them as snapshots of emerging Canadian art, just one of many possible perspectives. On view at the WAG into January, the current exhibition showcasing each of this year’s five regional finalists is worth taking in for that much alone, never mind who won last night.

Nadia Myre invited hundreds of participants to illustrate their physical and emotional “scars” using canvas, scissors, pencils and thread. While good art therapy doesn’t always make for good art, Myre’s clinical handling of private pain makes for complicated viewing. She organizes the identical square canvases visually and thematically, the surfaces transitioning from intact to violently shredded while recurring motifs like hands and hearts cluster together on the wall. Arranged like graphs, individual expressions become visual data. Seeing them together is a reminder we’re less alone — if also less unique — than we might imagine.

Evan Lee examines how anonymous ethnic and political “Others” are constructed in the media and in the public imagination. Working from indistinct newswire photos, he’s pieced together oil portraits of smuggled Tamil asylum-seekers, solidifying their identities. He layers clouds of black ink over blurry images of masked protesters, further obscuring theirs. Vitrines packed with 3D-printed models, digital renderings, newspaper clippings, photographs and political cartoons examine the seizure of the Ocean Lady (the vessel harbouring the refugees) from countless angles, expanding our perspective of the event but promising little in the way of clarity.

Jets land state-of-the-art dressing room after off-season of renovations

It’s not just the on-ice product that’s getting an overhaul this season for the Winnipeg Jets.

The hockey club has also undergone an extreme makeover when it comes to player facilities, including a new state-of-the-art dressing room that now rivals any around the league.

And if you don’t think that matters, you haven’t been paying attention.

“We’ve talked about doing everything first class,” head coach Scott Arniel told the Free Press on Tuesday. “We can’t do anything about the weather, but when people come here, we want them to know we look after them and we look after their families.”