Norse tales crackle with vitality and energy

Six high school hockey programs ceased operations following new Hockey Manitoba policy

She lived the best of both worlds.

For the last three years, the 17-year-old wore a sweater for two different hockey programs — her high school team and AAA club in the Manitoba Female Hockey League — and was preparing to flourish in both colours again this winter.

Recently, however, the blue-liner was disappointed to learn she is no longer eligible to play her Grade 12 season with her school owing to a new policy imposed by Hockey Manitoba that bans players from participating in the Manitoba Women’s High School Hockey League if they are rostered on a U18 AAA team.

The rule applies to all athletes who play for both Winnipeg-based and rural AAA teams.

Klein vows city ombudsman would bring transparency

Mayoral candidate Kevin Klein is promising to build public trust in city hall, if elected, with a new municipal ombudsman.

Klein expects the change would ramp up transparency and ensure complaints are thoroughly reviewed.

An independent municipal ombudsman would receive reports from whistleblowers and the public, then publish findings. That person would not answer to city staff or the mayor, Klein said.

“It will make hiding a bad file much harder. And it will make having meetings behind closed doors very difficult,” he said.

Lemonade stand brings in hundreds for West Broadway Youth Outreach

Like most 12-year-olds, there’s nothing Ruby Barkley enjoys more than a tall glass of lemonade. So when she decided to set up a lemonade stand, Ruby’s Sips + Sweets, in her neighbourhood last month, her mom was only too happy to say yes.

Especially since Ruby had decided she was going to donate proceeds of the sales to West Broadway Youth Outreach (WBYO), a non-profit organization providing recreational and life-skills programming for children aged four and up.

Ruby had set up lemonade stands in the past and was accustomed to serving up glasses from a pitchers of drink she’d already pre-made, but this time round she chose to do something different.

“We got a muddler press and I hand-pressed the lemons and then added flavours. It’s a whole process. It’s hand squeezed right before your eyes and anybody can watch it. I loved doing it,” she says.

Woman who joined mother in young girl’s brutal abuse, neglect should go to prison for nine years, Crown says

A Winnipeg woman who, along with her mother, subjected a young girl to prolonged abuse and neglect that took her to the brink of death should be sentenced to nine years in prison, a judge was told Monday.

The 25-year-old accused — who can only be identified by her initials A.A.R. because she is related to the victim, who is now 15 – pleaded guilty Monday to one count of aggravated assault.

A.A.R.’s mother, N.A., 48, pleaded guilty to the same charge in 2024 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The crimes of the mother and daughter came to light only after the then-12-year-old, dangerously malnourished victim fled their Arlington Street home through a second-floor bedroom window in August 2023 wearing only a diaper, with duct tape clinging to her arms.

Norse tales crackle with vitality and energy

The Poetic Edda (Coach House, 280 pages, $24), translated by Jeramy Dodds, is a major achievement.

Dodds, an award-winning poet and editor, holds a master's degree in medieval Icelandic studies. His translation of these tales of Norse gods and heroes crackles with energy and vitality, avoiding the formal tone that plagues similar projects in favour of bawdy, lively lines.

The poems of the Edda drift from raucous insult-contests to sage (yet often hilarious) advice, from tales of heroes slaying and slain to sombre meditations on death and war: "Cattle die, kinsmen die, / you yourself will die. / Yet I know what never dies: / the judgement given to the dead."

In one poem a disguised Odin engages in a knowledge game, pulling prophecy from Vafthrudnir by pretending to know it already. He reveals himself through his final challenge: "what did Odin whisper in Baldr's ear / before he was laid on his pyre?"

Residents who blame civic politicians for all that ails us should know it’s not entirely their fault

Winnipeggers see dysfunction on city streets and assume it is a failure by the city; in fact, this failure is more fairly assigned to the senior levels of government.