The Social Page: Art on the edge

A new chapter: Renamed Winnipeg Book Festival takes to The Forks this fall

Winnipeg’s long-running annual literary festival returns this fall, once again featuring a slate of authors, local and beyond, ready to engage with readers.

New this year is pretty much everything else, including a new name, executive director and team of staff — as well as a shift to a tight, condensed timeline and a move to hold all events under one roof.

The festival formerly known as Thin Air/Livres en fête is now the Winnipeg Book Festival; the event takes place Oct. 1-4 at The Forks Market, with most events offering free admission.

It’s a lot of changes for the stalwart literary festival, which was run for more than two decades by Charlene Diehl, who stepped away in late 2025.

Ducks Unlimited makes province’s largest-ever conservation-land purchase

A Manitoba landscape that helped save the Giant Canada goose from extinction has now been permanently protected in the province’s largest conservation land purchase in history.

Rail line bypass plan would make Winnipeg ‘major transportation hub’: Axworthy

After decades of calls to move railway traffic to the outskirts of Winnipeg, a plan that would benefit residents, railways and taxpayers is now on track, says the former Winnipegger leading the way.

A rail line bypass around the city, using Crown-owned land and the Manitoba Hydro corridor, would take 20 years to complete, remove 120 railway crossings that are a safety risk, and free up about 250 acres of Winnipeg land over time for development, Lloyd Axworthy said Tuesday.

Axworthy, a former federal transport minister and Manitoba MP, was tasked by Kinew in October 2024 with leading a two-year rail relocation feasibility study.

Axworthy and Premier Wab Kinew are holding a news conference Wednesday afternoon. The premier is expected to announce a three-month feasibility study that homes in on a location for a bypass around the city for major railways CN Rail, Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Canadian Pacific Kansas City.

Long-awaited supervised drug consumption site opens quietly after months of loud opposition

After three years of planning, delays and constant controversy, Manitoba’s first supervised drug consumption site quietly opened its doors Tuesday morning.

A Winnipeg home with a mountain view? You won’t find a real one, but AI-generated visual suggests otherwise

Manitoba’s mountain range peeked out behind a Scotia Street home.

At least, it did in a photo attached to a real estate listing for 232 Scotia St. in Winnipeg’s (flat) Seven Oaks neighbourhood.

Another picture — now removed — showed a cartoon cityscape viewable from the bungalow’s front porch.

Both photos had tags in their bottom left corners: “AI-generated content.”

‘Exciting news’ on rail relocation coming

Premier Wab Kinew is expected to make an announcement concerning long-awaited Winnipeg rail relocation later this week.

Former federal transport minister and Manitoba MP Lloyd Axworthy, who Kinew tasked in October 2024 with leading a two-year rail relocation feasibility study, confirmed there would be an announcement Wednesday.

“We’ve had this rail study group which I’ve chaired and we’ve been responsible for developing recommendations,” Axworthy said Monday.

The longtime champion for Winnipeg rail relocation, who is vacationing at his cottage on Lake Winnipeg, deferred to the premier’s office for information, but confirmed he will attend Wednesday’s news conference.