Audit finds B.C.’s forest management hurt by flawed data without clear methodology

Indigenous peoples are deeply invested in Canada

Elections Canada released a report this week that stated that, in the 2025 federal election, approximately 41 per cent of eligible First Nations, Inuit and Métis voters cast a ballot and contributed significantly to the federal Liberals and Prime Minister Mark Carney making a political comeback.

For anyone curious about how Manitoba fared, the numbers in this province were slightly lower — but still very strong, with 34 per cent participation.

This is a far cry from the highest rate of Indigenous participation in a federal election — that would be the 60 per cent who cast a ballot in 2015, when Justin Trudeau’s Liberals defeated Stephen Harper’s Conservatives — but it’s still higher than the abysmal numbers seen in decades previous.

First Nations voters have only been allowed the legal right to cast a ballot in Canadian elections since 1960, but many in the past — perhaps rightly — felt a sense of complicity in the country’s colonization or, worse, that voting didn’t make a difference.

HSC weapons scanners effective, needed at other hospitals: nurses union

The AI weapons scanners at Health Sciences Centre have detected close to 2,000 items since they were installed at Manitoba’s largest hospital.

Impaired driving victim honoured

Ten years after he was killed in a collision involving an impaired driver in 2016, Robbie Anderson’s name has been added to MADD Canada’s Manitoba Memorial honouring those killed in drunk and drug-impaired-related crashes.

His older brother Chris Anderson, was one of two dozen people who gathered at the Glen Eden Funeral Home and Cemetery in West St. Paul Saturday to remember their loved ones, 86 victims whose names are etched into the granite monument near the heart of the graveyard.

“It’s heavy,” said Anderson when asked what it was like to be part of the ceremony and see his brother’s name added. “It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for a while.”

Grateful for MADD’s work and its efforts to honour Robbie, who was 27 when he died, Anderson said his brother, represented the “absolute best of us.”

Opera group hits pub to stage shows for sophisticated palates

Opera’s famous drinking songs — La Traviata’s Brindisi, Don Giovanni’s Fin ch’han dal vino, Carmen’s Votre Toast — tend to flow with references to women and wine, not beer.

But that hasn’t stopped Winnipeggers from sipping 1919s or Generics at local bar and brewery Little Brown Jug over the past few years to the strains of Verdi, Puccini and Mozart.

Currently in its eighth season, Opera by the Pint has its next LBJ event Wednesday at 7 p.m. (The artists also perform at the Public Brewhouse and Gallery in Steinbach at 7 p.m. on Thursday.)

This week’s program focuses on musical hits, while also featuring traditional Filipino ballads and Mexican art songs.

Hayden Panettiere, who starred in ‘Heroes’ and ‘Nashville,’ dies at 36

Hayden Panettiere, who soared to fame two decades ago as a cheerleader with superpowers in the TV show “Heroes” and won country music success playing a singer on “Nashville,” has died. She was 36.

Police said Panettiere was found unresponsive in an apartment in Greenville, South Carolina, shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday. Lifesaving measures were performed but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

No cause of death has been provided. There were no signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances, police said in a statement. The Greenville County Coroner’s Office will perform an autopsy.

The television star, who would have turned 37 on Friday, had been open about her struggles with alcohol addiction and depression, including after the birth of her daughter with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.

Manitoba family finalist for cattle producers environmental award

A family in western Manitoba is one of seven finalists for a national environmental award honouring beef cattle producers.

Connor and Kyla English, alongside Connor’s parents, Brian and Leanne English, are nominated for the Canadian Cattle Association’s Environmental Stewardship Award. The 30-year-old award is presented to beef farmers and ranchers who explore innovative ways to protect, preserve and enhance their operations and the environment simultaneously.

This year’s recipient will be announced on Wednesday during a banquet at the Canadian Beef Industry Conference in Winnipeg.

The English family’s roots near Bradwardine — about 265 kilometres west of Winnipeg — date back to 1898. Today, Connor, Kyla, Brian and Leanne manage a herd of about 320 breeding cows on nearly 445 hectares (1,100 acres) of owned and rented pasture and forage land.