Hope and resilience in the face of oppression

Dynacare workers provide essential services that must be maintained during strike, labour board rules

The Manitoba Labour Board has ruled Dynacare workers are essential employees and their services must be maintained during a labour dispute.

Sisters relieved hospital takes accountability after mother’s death

Eight months after losing their mother, two Winnipeg sisters say an internal hospital review has finally given them something they had been seeking since her death: accountability.

Chelsea Mann and Samantha Burns said St. Boniface Hospital officials acknowledged mistakes were made in the care of their mother, Judy Burns, during a recent meeting to discuss the findings of a critical incident review into her death.

The acknowledgement marked a significant departure from an earlier meeting with hospital officials, when they felt their concerns were largely dismissed.

Burns, 68, died on Jan. 21, three days after being admitted, after experiencing rectal bleeding.

Jets new backup Stevenson ‘stoked’ to be in tandem with Skinner

It didn’t take long to get the dirt on the newest member of the Winnipeg Jets.

Meet Clay Stevenson, who has no problem if you prefer to refer to him by his long-standing nickname of “Mud.”

“You know, Clay is in the mud, and there you go. That’s it, right there,” Stevenson said Wednesday with a laugh. “I got it in juniors when I was playing in Coquitlam, and kind of stuck ever since.”

Stevenson is now hoping to make a name for himself in a city that, quite fittingly, translates to “muddy water” in Cree. The 27-year-old from Alberta was placed on waivers by the Washington Capitals and claimed by the Jets, who were looking to clarify a goaltending situation which was as murky as the Red River.

Transit, roads and city council’s priorities

Did any of you happen to notice that the week of Sept. 14 marked an interesting confluence of events in Winnipeg? First up was the mayoral debate on public transit. Second was an announcement that the city would be undertaking a survey to determine whether their citizens’ “transportation needs” are being met.

The debate on our public bus system, from which our current Mayor Scott Gillingham was tellingly absent, focused primarily on safety rather than the efficiency of the system.

Which, on one level, is no great surprise.

After all unlawful incidents on buses and at transit stops have increased by 280 per cent compared to levels recorded around 2016. Moreover, the candidates were primarily speaking to the bus drivers’ union that organized the event, and bus drivers are often the victims of violent episodes.

Animated adaptation carries same emotional weight as bestselling children's novel

Sensitively handled and powerfully and poignantly realized, this family-friendly animated drama centres on Parvana (voiced by Degrassi: The Next Generation’s Saara Chaudry), an 11-year-old girl living in Kabul under repressive Taliban rule.

After the arbitrary arrest of her father (Ali Badshah), a kindly former history teacher who has taught his daughters to read and who hides forbidden books beneath the floorboards, Parvana’s family is left destitute. Under the Taliban, women are not allowed to leave the house without a male relative.

Cutting her hair and dressing as a boy, Parvana is able to work, fetch water and buy food in the market. She becomes the family’s provider, helping her increasingly overwhelmed mother (Laara Sadiq), her older sister (Shaista Latif) — with whom she shares a close, but fractious bond — and her baby brother.

Even as Parvana shoulders this burden, she finds a new kind of (relative) freedom. She moves through the world in a different way.