Immigrant Clarkson to sign books

The wheels on the bus burned down, down, down…

Up on the high ground, a year after the big forest fire in Newfoundland’s Conception Bay North, and the bare rock is startling.

It’s ghostly. The little birds flit and chirp from the naked silver bare-wood branches, and a solitary northern flicker makes its call from — somewhere. But mostly, it’s still, and silent. With the underbrush gone, you can see how little animal life is here right now.

But the most astounding thing is underfoot. On the high rock behind Adam’s Cove and away from the sea, not only are the trees and low brush gone, but much of the soil has burned away as well.

It burned very, very hot.

Positive anticipation is growing about major housing developments underway in Winnipeg’s downtown

If traffic is light and the wind is down, Somia Sadiq is able to hear the roar of Winnipeg Jets fans twice: first through her window, then on TV.

From her apartment view high above downtown, she can look out at Graham Avenue’s painted pedestrian landscape, see construction cranes and hear the heavy equipment at work as massive housing projects take shape at The Forks, at what used to be Portage Place shopping centre and at the former Hudson’s Bay building.

Sadiq has lived at 300 Main for 2 1/2 years, a few steps from the city’s famous, windy and reopened-to-pedestrians Portage Avenue intersection. At 42 storeys, it’s the tallest building in Winnipeg.

She is among 18,000 downtown residents who will soon be joined by thousands of others attracted to the city’s core by the new wave of major construction projects.

Signs of local neo-Nazi recruiting efforts spark concern

A far-right canvassing push in Manitoba this month is raising concerns among Winnipeg residents.

Stickers promoting Nationalist-13, a men’s-only neo-Nazi group also known as NS-13 based primarily in Hamilton, Ont., have appeared in Winnipeg and parts of southern Manitoba. The stickers bear national socialist branding and messages such as “White Man, Fight Back” and “White Community, Political Action, Training and Fitness.”

Winnipeg writer Jess Woolford recently encountered an NS-13 poster on Pembina Highway.

“It was appalling,” Woolford said. “It has the Nazi death heads covering people’s faces. It was pretty disturbing to come across this … I just didn’t expect to see it so blatantly displayed in my neighbourhood.”

Unhappy Dynacare staff refuse OT shifts; doors could be closed at clinics with Saturday hours

Some Winnipeg Dynacare sites normally open on Saturday were closed last week, and may continue to be because staff are refusing to pick up overtime shifts after they were forced back to work amid a labour dispute with the company.

Immigrant Clarkson to sign books

ADRIENNE Clarkson's fifth book, reviewed in these pages this week, has been described as a "tale of many destinies." The former journalist and governor general of Canada will be at the West End Cultural Centre on Sunday at 2 p.m. to speak and sign.

In a recent CBC interview, Clarkson said, "Immigration is increasingly vital to the success of our country." She also said, "I am like all the eight people that I profile in my book."

Tickets are $10 and are available at McNally Robinson Booksellers, or by calling 475-0483.

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Bison kicker Turner named captain, shows she belongs

Even on nights like this, Maya Turner can appreciate how far she’s come.

Though it feels like yesterday that the Manitoba Bisons kicker arrived on the scene with an unheralded right leg and a point to prove, these days the fifth-year student-athlete is lining up to split the uprights with a veteran boot and the added responsibility of being a team captain.

Getting to this point wasn’t easy, though.

It’s now four years ago that Turner ditched her NCAA Division 1 soccer career at Loyola University in Chicago to kick a different ball on the gridiron and signed with the Bisons, who were one of more than one hundred programs across North America that she sent tape to in hopes of realizing a new dream.