A clash of narratives

Could renewed interest in strategically critical rare earth elements finally make sub-sector profitable?

Rare earth elements are among the most critical of mined resources for modern economies.

They’re essential in manufacturing specialized magnets used in a host of technologies from wind turbines and electric vehicles to hard drives, smartphones, television screens, and fibre optics. Most notably, however, rare earth minerals are increasingly vital to the defence industry.

These 17 elements — closely related chemically and usually found all together in mineral deposits — have indeed been growing in geopolitical importance as the United States, Canada and other Western nations recognize their dependence on production from China.

It is the world’s largest producer and processor of rare earths, including the most in-demand elements neodymium and praseodymium used to manufacture very light and powerful magnets for an array of technologies, including the most advanced weapons of modern warfare.

WRHA directs three care homes to accommodate surge of hospital patients

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has directed three long-term care centres to make space for hospital patients, citing “exceptionally high demand for care across the health-care system.”

Corroded Arlington overpass yields way for new hope of spanning urban chasm

It’s an interesting quirk of timing, perhaps, that the end of two of Winnipeg’s most unlovely features are coming into view in the same few weeks. The rail lines that split the city in half, and the bridge that was built to tie it back together. The original problem, and the solution.

And in the confluence of those two ends, we have an opportunity to dream of what a better Winnipeg can be.

At a news conference on Wednesday, former federal transport minister Lloyd Axworthy laid out a vision for a rail line bypass that would remove more than 120 railway crossings from Winnipeg, route them through Crown and Manitoba Hydro corridor land south of the city, and reclaim 250 acres in the urban core for greenspace and development.

The next step is to focus on how to make it happen. Nothing of this scope comes easy. This new bypass plan emerged from a two-year feasibility study that Premier Wab Kinew had tasked Axworthy with back in 2024. Now, Axworthy will helm a new 90-day feasibility study zooming in on that route specifically.

A clash of narratives

No one likes to linger on violence — statues rise and fall depending on our collective need to rationalize or reveal the various violences of our past.

Sean Patterson, a PhD student at the University of Alberta and former Winnipegger, has written a work of social history attempting to tell and ultimately bring into conversation two narratives of violence that emerged from a particular place and time, Ukraine between 1917 and 1921, narratives centring a single individual — Nestor Makhno. For many anarchists, Makhno is a revolutionary folk hero fighting to overturn violent social conditions. For many Mennonites, Makhno is akin to the devil himself. For nearly a century, these accounts have been largely oblivious to each other.

Patterson frames the narratives within the larger history of the time, including: the earlier colonization of “New Russia” by Catherine the Great, who cleared local peasants bringing in foreigners including Mennonites; the impacts of the First World War, which saw the presence of the Austro-German army within Ukraine; and the rapid changes brought by the Russian Revolution, with various groups vying for power. It is within these massive sea changes that Mennonites and Makhnovists collide.

From the Makhnovist perspective, Mennonites were simply one of a number of “German colonists” (they are never identified as Mennonites) whose privileges allowed for exploitation of surrounding peasants. Makhno himself was employed on what appeared to be a Mennonite estate, where he recalls an instance of being whipped for forgetting one of his chores.

Manitoba family finalist for cattle producers environmental award

A family in western Manitoba is one of seven finalists for a national environmental award honouring beef cattle producers.

Connor and Kyla English, alongside Connor’s parents, Brian and Leanne English, are nominated for the Canadian Cattle Association’s Environmental Stewardship Award. The 30-year-old award is presented to beef farmers and ranchers who explore innovative ways to protect, preserve and enhance their operations and the environment simultaneously.

This year’s recipient will be announced on Wednesday during a banquet at the Canadian Beef Industry Conference in Winnipeg.

The English family’s roots near Bradwardine — about 265 kilometres west of Winnipeg — date back to 1898. Today, Connor, Kyla, Brian and Leanne manage a herd of about 320 breeding cows on nearly 445 hectares (1,100 acres) of owned and rented pasture and forage land.

West Kildonan Industrial residents call for speed bumps after child hit by truck

Residents in the West Kildonan Industrial neighbourhood are calling on the city to install speed bumps in their area after a child was hit and dragged by a vehicle Thursday.

Katelyn Bemister lives near the area where the child — who was hospitalized as a result of the incident and has been upgraded to stable condition — was struck. She says people frequently speed in the area.

“They’re going really fast, and they’re not really paying attention at all to the pedestrians in the area,” says Bemister.

In video supplied to the Free Press by a resident, the child can be seen riding a bike down a sidewalk along the 500 block of North Point Boulevard.