O’Connor pulls out of Interstellar Rodeo

Mosque’s restorative justice program helps newcomers find their way

The Masjid Bilal is a chunky grey building just off Logan Avenue surrounded by warehouses and railyards. It looks more like a bunker than a mosque.

But on a summer Friday afternoon, its green-and-white carpeted interior is humming with activity. Two men in white robes and flat woolen caps are seated on the carpet poring over a copy of the Qur’an. A few young boys dodge through hallways, poking curious noses into open doors. At the back, next to a table piled with prayer mats, two girls in hijabs share schoolyard gossip. In the kitchen, women are cooking up pots of rice and chicken for people who will soon arrive for Friday prayers.

The Masjid Bilal is a community hub for members of Winnipeg’s African diaspora as well as Muslims from many other countries.

It’s also home to the Bilal Community and Family Centre, an innovative, community-centred nonprofit that is meeting vital needs for newcomers in this city.

Fringe reviews #16: I need an extra show

Filthy Fakespeare, Just You and Me, The Review, Serious Comedy, This Is, You Are Happy, Real Grilfriend, Push Your Wheelchair

Search continues for brothers feared drowned at Nutimik Lake

Search-and-rescue crews continued efforts Monday to locate two boys who are presumed drowned after falling into fast-moving rapids at Nutimik Lake on the weekend, as community members and Manitoba Parks begin conversations about preventing future tragedies.

The boys, identified as brothers Aaron Au Ramirez, 13, and Maximo Au Ramirez, 10, were visiting Whiteshell Provincial Park with their father and some friends when they entered the water near the Sturgeon Falls Trail Saturday afternoon.

Lac du Bonnet RCMP received a report of a possible drowning at about 12:40 p.m. Police, along with local emergency responders, searched the shoreline and waterways but were unable to find the boys, RCMP said in a news release.

The Manitoba RCMP Underwater Recovery Team and the Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team were later deployed to assist with the search.

Fringe reviews #15: Button-mashing mayhem

Babel, Chase Padgett, Dirk Darrow, The Glass Between Us, K-Tel Demon Hunters, Mr. Richard, Penny Ashton, Grant Canyon, Rocky Horror Show, Wisecracks for Weirdos

Bishnoi Gang active in Manitoba

The Bishnoi Gang, which is run by a convicted gangster from his prison cell in India, appears to have gained a foothold in Manitoba. A civil forfeiture lawsuit filed in the Court of King’s Bench this month has revealed a 36-year-old man, who was arrested this year, had claimed he is a member of the Bishnoi Gang when he tried to extort cash from a Winnipeg resident.

WestJet adding two new direct flights from Winnipeg to warm-weather destinations

WestJet announced on Monday it will launch non-stop routes between Winnipeg and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and between Winnipeg and Belize City, Belize.