Fringe notebook: Festival impact, PTE venues, Plan V

‘Historic day’: two-year demolition of Arlington Bridge begins

The first pieces of the Arlington Bridge, a long-deteriorating Winnipeg landmark, were removed Thursday morning, nearly 115 years after it was built.

Sheriff who died in train collision ‘loved everybody’

Brett Matheson-Maytwayashing was a loving father, hard-working sheriff and proud First Nations man who helped lead traditional ceremonies for a decade before he died in a collision with a train near Portage la Prairie.

Matheson-Maytwayashing, 27, died in the Tuesday morning crash, which occurred on a rural road west of Portage while he and another member of the sheriff’s service were on their way to attend court in Amaranth, his mother, Alissa Matheson-Maytwayashing, told the Free Press.

It was Matheson-Maytwayashing’s first day back at work after taking time off to participate in a sun dance ceremony in northern Saskatchewan last week, his mother said.

“Brett didn’t judge anybody, he would give people chances,” she said, her voice breaking. “He didn’t care what colour you were, he didn’t care your nationality — Brett just loved everybody.”

No more trashing paper coffee cups

Mahalia Lepage and Joshua Bassman know their way around a recycling bin.

They try to take reusable cups when they go to their local coffee shop, and even volunteered with Folk Fest’s “enviro crew” last weekend. A large part of that job, they said, was informing guests about which items were recyclable.

The one item that stood out was paper coffee cups.

They weren’t considered recyclable until Wednesday — when Winnipeg recycling organizations announced paper cups can be thrown into blue bins around the province, effective immediately.

Long-held core values of openness, inclusion, empathy set Convalescent Home apart from the personal care home pack

Life in a personal care home isn’t something many dream of. In fact, these days, it’s more common to dread the idea.

Manitoba has 124 licensed care homes. Some have been criticized for substandard care, chronic understaffing and depressing meals, or flagged for neglect, abuse and lack of transparency.

Though there are provincial standards in place, there is little consistency among them. More than a few are evasive, unwilling to communicate about issues of importance to residents and their families.

So, imagine finding a care home determined to do it right.

PCs cleared of election violation for ‘intimacy coach’ invoice

Manitoba’s elections commissioner has cleared the Progressive Conservatives of wrongdoing after a $3,800 expense for a car rental appeared on an invoice from a company offering “intimacy coach” services.

The findings from the commissioner bring an end to a complaint raised by the NDP in October 2024, when it was alleged the PCs violated the Election Financing Act by forging financial documents related to the previous year’s election campaign.

“I am satisfied that the expense was indeed for a car rental, as the invoice described,” Bill Bowles wrote in a letter addressed to both parties Wednesday.

Concerns over the invoice to Lucid Vitality were first raised by a former PC staffer, whose internal emails with party officials were published in the Winnipeg Sun.

Winnipeg Fringe Festival: 2026 show reviews

Not sure what to see at this year's Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival? All of the Free Press’s reviews will be published here.  Find a show and click to read its review.