High school authors honoured for works of inclusion

High school authors honoured for works of inclusion

Children with big ideas were honoured Wednesday night, as the Manitoba winners of the second annual Diverse Minds creative writing competition were announced.

The countrywide initiative launched by Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith calls on high school students to write and illustrate a book meant for elementary students. The theme of the book must reflect positive values that can be used to help the reader’s community.

The top prize of $3,000 (plus $500 each for the winner’s school and supervising teacher) went to Sam Mercier, a Grade 11 student at St. Maurice School in Winnipeg, whose story My Name is Sam and Yes I Can! will be professionally published and copies will be donated to public libraries and elementary schools within the local community.

Mercier, who has autism, said his love for art inspired him to enter the contest.

Frustration mounts as drug raids sweep problems out of downtown, into West End

West End business owners say their neighbourhood has been under siege for months, and some believe downtown police drug sweeps have made things worse by pushing more street disorder in their direction — and pushing customers away.

Svard wins Manitoba Open in playoff

History will show Daniel Svard won the 2026 Manitoba Open on the 73rd hole of play, sinking a nervy three-foot par putt in a playoff to claim his first professional victory on Sunday afternoon at Elmhurst.

But it was much earlier in his final round — which started with three bogeys in the first five holes — where the tournament really was won. Or, more precisely, not lost.

“Pretty wild, the range of emotions I went through,” said the 23-year-old PGA Tour Americas rookie from Sweden, who began the day with a two-shot lead but suddenly found himself in chase mode.

“I was feeling really good and really confident and then I had kind of a nightmare start. I actually had to make some big putts to not completely play myself out of it. Everything kind of worked out in the end, but it was a roller-coaster to get there. I’m pretty excited and proud of how I got there to fight back.”

‘Pie Lady’ was a straight-shooter and the life of the party

Betty Gyles went by many names over the years: Mom, Grandma, hostess — and later in life, “Pie Lady.”

Elizabeth, known as Betty to most, was born in Winnipeg’s River Heights neighbourhood to Bill and Elizabeth Armstrong. She was the youngest child in her family, with three siblings: Bill, Bob and Barb.

Gyles grew up soaking up the sun in northwest Ontario, where her parents owned a cottage; it was there she learned to love to swim and sunbathe and sit on the “reading rock” with her sister.

Gyles would write stories and after each page was finished Betty would read them and it counted toward her summer reading goal.

Five Things: PM Carney explains why Canada left the U.S. negotiating table

OTTAWA - Canada is preparing to hit the U.S. with dollar-for-dollar tariffs in response to new 50 per cent duties on $28 billion worth of Canadian products that took effect when talks between the two nations collapsed as negotiations neared the finish line. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney was quiet publicly during the final days of negotiations, but now has now explained his rationale for telling the Canadian negotiating team, led by Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and chief negotiator Janice Charette, to leave the table.

Restrictions on further trade deals

"The U.S. Introduced at the last hours, in the last hours, efforts to restrict our ability to have other trade deals. You heard me say a moment ago, what we've accomplished in the past year, 20 new deals, economic and security partnerships, the prospect of doubling our market access because we believe in free trade. We're the partner of choice in many respects for countries around the world and the Americans wanted to restrict that. They had language that what they wanted to restrict that, unacceptable," Carney said during a press conference on Parliament Hill.