2024 wildfire season is on track to be second largest in last two decades

Who has been invited to the table?

Last Friday, I spoke at Booth University College’s inaugural Honour and Hope Harvest Dinner in support of Shelter U. I had been asked to speak about the power of art in the community, a subject I have spent much of my professional life thinking about — as a museum director, writer and teacher, and now through my consulting work with Civic Muse.

What continues to interest me is not simply what museums, universities and other public institutions do, but whether their work actually matters — whether they make a difference in the lives of the people and communities around them.

Preparing for the evening brought me back to an even more fundamental question: Who has been invited in?

One of my museum mentors used to remind me that institutions often begin the conversation about public engagement too late. Before engagement comes the welcome, and before the welcome comes the invitation. We can create extraordinary buildings, exhibitions and programs and say that everyone is welcome. But unless people believe that these places are also meant for them, many will never cross the threshold.

Netminder no stranger to heavy workload as Jets new No. 1 readies for regular-season start

Stuart Skinner is quick to admit that he wasn’t always wired this way.

As the Winnipeg Jets new starting goalie prepares for his fifth NHL season, Skinner conceded that the accountability aspect that is now synonymous with his character took some time to build up.

“As I grew up and got older, you go through certain things in life that either build character or make things worse for you. It depends on your choice and your decision,” Skinner said during a recent conversation with the Free Press. “I learned it through trial and error. I learned that, sometimes, it’s hard to get honest with yourself… For me, it’s definitely been a road for me to get to a place like this.

“It definitely is one of my pillars. Accountability is so important because that brings you into a spot of what you’re going to do next. It’s easy to let yourself off the hook. I’m more in the business of putting myself on the hook.”

What’s open, what’s closed, what’s up in Winnipeg on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Sept. 30, 2026

The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, or Orange Shirt Day, as it's known in Manitoba, happens Sept. 30 with many commemorative community events scheduled.

Truck carrying mail, milk and alcohol to isolated N.B. island held at U.S. border

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND - A truck carrying supplies for an isolated New Brunswick island linked to the rest of Canada by U.S. roads was turned back at the international border Tuesday, says the local member of Parliament. 

New Brunswick South MP John Williamson said U.S. border officials stopped the truck bound for Campobello Island, N.B., because it was carrying milk and alcohol. Importing those items into the United States is prohibited under new rules that went into effect Tuesday as part of the ongoing trade war.

The only land link to the picturesque island, best known as the summer retreat of former U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is a bridge to the town of Lubec, Maine. From there it's an 80-kilometres drive to the next border crossing at Calais, Maine, where the truck was stopped.

Williamson said the truck typically travels to the island every weekday, carrying mail and goods for the island's less than 1,000 residents under a special Canada Border Services Agency licence. The truck is sealed with a customs tag guarantying it will not stop on the way to the island.

2024 wildfire season is on track to be second largest in last two decades

Canada's wildfire season is on track to be the second largest in at least the past two decades, trailing only last year's record-breaking season, federal officials said Wednesday.

Officials said above-normal temperatures and drought conditions across parts of Canada have continued to drive fire activity, with 5.3 million hectares burned so far, though they caution that number is preliminary.

Outside of last year's roughly 15 million hectares burned, federal records indicate only three other seasons have topped five million hectares, and the last was in 1995.

Yan Boulanger, a research scientist with Natural Resources Canada, said climate change has contributed to earlier starts and later ends to the wildfire season, turning fire into a year-round phenomenon.