Epitaph signs local punk band Propagandhi

Unsafe conditions force Sea Bears, Honey Badgers into winner-take-all CEBL final in Winnipeg Saturday

BRAMPTON — The Canadian Elite Basketball League’s new Finals format lasted one minute and 46 seconds.

And it’s possible even that was too long.

What was supposed to be a historic best-of-three series between the Winnipeg Sea Bears and the Brampton Honey Badgers will now return to the league’s previous format of a single-game elimination. Wednesday’s Game 1 at the CAA Centre in Southern Ontario was cancelled shortly after tip-off due to condensation on the court, which made the playing surface unsafe for competition.

The championship will flip to the Manitoba capital for a single, winner-take-all contest at Canada Life Centre on Saturday (2:30 p.m.).

City Lego seller continues to build up its business

Brick by brick, a Winnipeg Lego seller is building its third expansion — in less than two years.

Icy relationship with U.S. beginning to thaw at border, data shows; American visits to Manitoba hit five-year high

As Canadians begin to lower their elbows and start to cross the U.S. border again, Americans are coming to Manitoba in numbers not seen in years.

Safety upgrades at Whiteshell park to begin soon

Construction on safety improvements at a site where two boys drowned in Whiteshell Provincial Park will soon get underway.

The improvements, which include new barriers and fenced lookouts, signage and a new portage for kayakers and canoeists at Sturgeon Falls, was promised by the province after the deaths of brothers Maximo Au Ramirez, 10, and Aaron Au Ramirez, 13, who went missing in Nutimik Lake on July 18.

The province said in a news release Friday the upgrades would begin shortly.

“We have a responsibility to do everything we can to make this site safer and to prevent another family from going through this kind of heartbreak,” said Environment Minister Mike Moyes in the release. “These measures will make the Sturgeon Falls area safer and ensure that Manitobans and visitors are protected when the area reopens.”

WRHA directs three care homes to accommodate surge of hospital patients

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has directed three long-term care centres to make space for hospital patients, citing “exceptionally high demand for care across the health-care system.”

It’s one thing to climb aboard rail-relocation train, quite another to pay for the ride

Anyone who wants a brighter, safer, healthier future for the city of Winnipeg should really want the renewed hopes of rail relocation to finally become reality. And the sooner, the better.

Premier Wab Kinew announced Wednesday the province was going to forge a plan to relocate the Canadian Pacific Kansas City central yards and many of other the lines that run through Winnipeg to a bypass that runs around the city.

This “plan to design a plan” strategy was devised by a task force headed up by former federal MP and cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy, who in 2024 was given a two-year mandate to find the best way to rid the city of some or all of its rail infrastructure.

For the record, Kinew and Axworthy said a relocation would likely take 20 years to complete, which makes this week’s announcement an important statement of intent, but little more. The sobering reality is that this promising idea has been proposed by political leaders, and then abandoned, for decades.