Actor, singer Pyrz has died

The bountiful harvest: Thousands of visitors flock to St. Norbert Farmers’ Market every Saturday

While most of Winnipeg is still sleeping, or perhaps just starting to think about making the morning coffee, a patch of shade and sun just south of the Perimeter Highway is already humming with life.

Actor, singer Pyrz has died

Winnipeg-born actor and rockabilly singer Gene Pyrz, 56, died Tuesday morning after a battle with cancer.

The actor, who grew up in Elmwood, is known for film roles in Cinderella Man (2005), The Plague (2006), Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001).

Pyrz, who also enjoyed a successful theatre career, appeared in Manitoba Theatre Centre productions A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Crucible, A Streetcar Named Desire and Hamlet.

As a rockabilly singer, he was the lead singer in the band Combo Combo and was known locally for his performance of "I'll Apologize" with The Rowdymen.

Chinese newcomers protest over delays in security screening clearance

Dozens of Chinese newcomers rallied outside Winnipeg’s federal immigration office Friday to protest what they describe as untenable delays to Canada’s security screening process.

The rally against Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada comes after a surge in immigration security screening requests created backlogs for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Protesters said the resulting delays have left them in limbo as they try to obtain permanent residency.

“We just want transparency,” said Pakying Chau, 26, who travelled from Hong Kong to Winnipeg in 2018 to study agribusiness.

Crop storage headaches loom on horizon

A sense of calm descends over Prairie fields this time of year — at least on the surface.

Activities become more limited in the weeks leading up to harvest. There’s not much farmers can do now to support this year’s crop, other than monitor and protect it from diseases such as sclerotinia in canola and leaf stripe and fusarium head blight in wheat and barley.

July is when you might see farmers wading into a thick stand of canola, conducting a so-called “wet pants test” to get a low-tech read on how much disease-inducing moisture is lurking in the canopy.

Disease pressure is high in a humid, hot summer like this one and it’s kept aerial applicators busy applying fungicides. Sclerotinia spores live on plant residues in the soil and blossom into a mould that destroys the canola stem, starving the maturing pods.