Libraries across Canada to host Winter Olympics watch parties

Wesmen women’s volleyball vets set on leading team to new heights

The Winnipeg Wesmen have taken their lumps over the last two years.

The women’s volleyball team has been the younger sister to some of Canada West’s more veteran programs while it refilled its cupboard with talent and cut its teeth.

The Wesmen are optimistic that those days are behind them, however.

The core of this squad is all grown up now and looking to jump into the next echelon with the rest of the conference heavyweights.

Ladies and gentlemen of voting age, please turn your attention to the centre ring…

If there’s one thing that we in the news business wish for any election, it’s that the campaign is competitive and voters have multiple, viable options when it comes time to cast their ballots.

That is certainly what I wished for in this year’s Winnipeg mayoral election: a ballot with two or more competent candidates — including incumbent Scott Gillingham — that offered contrasting visions for the future of the city.

Unfortunately, this time we didn’t get competent or viable. Instead, we got a clown show stuffed with candidates for mayor who have demonstrated a stunning capacity for self-inflicted wounds.

It all started when mayoral candidates Kevin Klein and Mike Vogiatzakis both alleged they had been asked by each other’s campaign to step down to give the remaining candidate a better shot at defeating Gillingham.

Bloodvein standing firm, won’t move blockade

Indigenous leaders are accusing the province of violating treaty rights for asking a First Nations community to move its checkstop that was set up to keep drugs and alcohol out.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson and Bloodvein River First Nation Chief Lisa Young say the province isn’t upholding its responsibilities under treaties signed between First Nations and the province, during a livestreamed press conference Wednesday.

“It’s really up to the discretion of the nations in which territory (hunters) are in, and the province needs to understand that as well,” Wilson said.

The province has said it sent a cease and desist letter to Bloodvein, located about 235 kilometres north of Winnipeg, about the checkstop, which has been in place since May 2025 to keep illicit substances out. The province is concerned it would restrict licensed hunters from legally hunting on the territory.

Dozens of Uber, Lyft drivers switched to cheaper insurance coverage: MPI probe

Ride-service drivers have been defrauding Manitoba Public Insurance by improperly insuring their vehicles as for personal use.

The public insurer and the City of Winnipeg, which regulates ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, discovered the widespread fraud after MPI conducted a review in December last year.

“When a driver changes their coverage from ride-share insurance to a personal vehicle coverage and continues to operate as a ride-share driver, that is fraud, plain and simple,” said MPI chief executive officer Satvir Jatana at a news conference Thursday.

MPI’s review looked at a random sample of 408 ride-hailing vehicles and found 108 were operating without the proper vehicle-for-hire insurance coverage. In order to register with the city as a ride-service driver, a vehicle must have such insurance and proof must be provided to the ride-booking company.

Sex offender who changed name sent back to prison

The father of a boy repeatedly abused by convicted sex predator Ryan Knight said he believes his son would have been kept safe had there been a law in place preventing sex offenders from legally changing their name.

New beds fill gaps, won’t fix health-care woes

The NDP government is finally putting more money into one of the most important solutions to Manitoba’s emergency-room crisis: getting patients who no longer require acute-care treatment out of hospitals and into more appropriate care.

The province is adding 103 new community-based spaces in Winnipeg for patients who no longer need to be in hospital but still need somewhere safe to go.

That’s a good investment. It’s also an acknowledgement of a problem that has been clogging Manitoba’s hospitals for years.

About 600 patients are occupying hospital beds on an average day even though they no longer require acute care treatment. They are waiting for personal-care-home beds, housing, home supports, mental-health services or other community-based options.