High school authors honoured for works of inclusion

A Life's Story: Musician made great contributions, advocated for fellow artists

When a University of Manitoba dean came to inform Victor Davies that he was booted from pre-med in the late 1950s, it was — to permit a cliché — music to his ears.

“In his mind, what he heard was much more encouraging. He heard, ‘Follow your own dream. Listen to your own melody. Speak with your own voice,’” says Davies’s daughter, Heather.

Davies, who died at 87 from pancreatic cancer and PLS in late September, was nevertheless about to take a major gamble, one that would eventually earn him an honorary doctorate from the University of Manitoba and a nomination to the Order of Canada.

Few careers are as uncertain as music, and at a time when the composition departments were saying au revoir to tonality, embracing the heavily dissonant styles of France and Germany, Davies was about to go against the grain. He would soon find a new home across the border in Bloomington, Ind., where for four years he studied at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Jets salvage point in Chicago

CHICAGO — Ever have one of those days where you should have just stayed in bed? That pretty much sums up how Thursday went for the Winnipeg Jets here in the Windy City.

It began with the bad news that top defenceman Josh Morrissey’s wrist issue is more serious than feared, and he likely won’t be back in the lineup any time soon. Then, veteran forward Vlad Namestnikov, coming off his best game of the young season, crashed into the boards at the end of morning skate, suffering an upper-body injury that sent him to the sidelines.

Off to the game itself, which began with Dylan DeMelo hitting the post on the first shift, a parade of Winnipeg penalties helping the home team build a healthy early lead and, last and certainly least, an eventual 4-3 overtime loss at United Center.

It actually could have been worse.

Women wearing appropriate clothes to gym not asking for men’s opinions

Prior to last Saturday, I was the blissful sort of person who could say “who is that, again?” when I heard the name Shane Gillis.

Now, I know him as the comedian who said “women just dress like whores now” at the gym during his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live — a show that fired him in 2019, by the way, for being racist and homophobic on a podcast yet continues to invite him back as a host for some reason.

Gillis also likened women’s short shorts (the kind one might wear to lift weights, say) to neon fishing lures.

“And don’t look. You’re not allowed to look. For real, don’t look, because they are filming,” he said.

Disgraced ex-dean landed job at German university after fleeing Winnipeg

Before he was arrested in a posh Paris suburb, the disgraced dean of Manitoba’s only law school — who fled the country following a 2020 expense scandal — kept a low profile at a German university.

Manitoba Hydro to replace dozens of electrical substations over 20 years

Manitoba Hydro is promising fewer power outages in Winnipeg once it replaces or converts 41 electrical substations in a project the utility says will last up to 20 years and cost as much as $1.2 billion.