Fringe benefits

Fringe reviews #10: Ready Player One

Andrew Silverwood, Bullheaded, Captain Ted, Eleanor's Story, Eleven Please, Finding Rem Lezar, Hayden Maines, Jimmy Hogg, Jon Bennett, Now Don't Get Upset.

Outreach centre rife with drug use, needles, but daycare, community members say safety concerns go unheard

Children at an Osborne Village daycare are routinely exposed to discarded needles, human feces and drug use, prompting growing safety concerns from parents, residents and business owners.

The concerns centre on Augustine Centre at River Avenue and Osborne Street, where SPLASH Child Care shares the building with Oak Table, a drop-in operated by 1JustCity that provides meals, wellness and addiction supports, along with programs that help people build skills, and secure housing and employment.

The daycare looks after 132 children, from just a few months old to age 12.

Lesley Massey, executive director of the daycare, said parents fear for their children’s safety.

Mosque’s restorative justice program helps newcomers find their way

The Masjid Bilal is a chunky grey building just off Logan Avenue surrounded by warehouses and railyards. It looks more like a bunker than a mosque.

But on a summer Friday afternoon, its green-and-white carpeted interior is humming with activity. Two men in white robes and flat woolen caps are seated on the carpet poring over a copy of the Qur’an. A few young boys dodge through hallways, poking curious noses into open doors. At the back, next to a table piled with prayer mats, two girls in hijabs share schoolyard gossip. In the kitchen, women are cooking up pots of rice and chicken for people who will soon arrive for Friday prayers.

The Masjid Bilal is a community hub for members of Winnipeg’s African diaspora as well as Muslims from many other countries.

It’s also home to the Bilal Community and Family Centre, an innovative, community-centred nonprofit that is meeting vital needs for newcomers in this city.

‘It wasn’t a fit’: Redblacks coach on sending QB Dru Brown back to Winnipeg

OTTAWA — The Ottawa Redblacks may be 0-5, but Ryan Dinwiddie has no regrets about how the Dru Brown situation unfolded.

The head coach and general manager also stands by his decision to name Jake Maier — who has struggled mightily this season — the team’s starting quarterback over Brown.

“When you make a decision, and you feel this guy is your best quarterback, what am I going to do, cater to Dru and say ‘Hey, you don’t want to be the backup? OK, we’re gonna name you the starter.’ That’s not how things work,” Dinwiddie told the Free Press in a one-on-one chat.

“It worked out that way, it wasn’t a fit, and now we’re trying to move forward and trying to find some answers here in our building.”

Local fans feel ‘Spanish euphoria’

Chants of “Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé” and “where is Messi?” could be heard echoing through Winnipeg’s downtown as Spain defeated Argentina in extra time to become World Cup Champions on Sunday.

What one World Cup announcer dubbed “Spanish euphoria,” was certainly on full display at True North Square on Hargrave Street where more than 500 people gathered to take in the tournament’s conclusion and celebrate the sport, which is quickly becoming Canada’s new game.

“Go Spain,” Cole Lacap, yelled at the top of his lungs after he watched Ferran Torres’ score the goal that would take Spain to a 1 - 0 victory over Argentina and send Spanish fans in Winnipeg into a frenzy.

“It was amazing. Spain definitely deserved that,” said Lacap, who had the red and yellow Spanish flag gripped tightly for much of the game.

City denies teen received ‘life-altering injuries’ from police dog bite in lawsuit defence

City officials have denied a 17-year-old girl’s claim she received life-altering injuries when a Winnipeg police dog bit her, arguing her lawsuit over last year’s incident should be rejected.

The teen, whom the Free Press is not naming because she is a minor involved with a police matter, seeks unspecified damages from the City of Winnipeg, in a statement of claim filed in the Court of King’s Bench in March.

The teen, described as “a small, slightly built girl,” claims she was “attacked, arrested and detained” by several Winnipeg Police Service officers around 1 a.m. on June 4, 2025.

The girl’s court papers say that in order to detain the teen, officers first deployed “a large, vicious and dangerous, non-human, canine animal,” which the lawsuit calls the “beast” in subsequent references.