Alberta Energy Regulator fines company $456K for providing misleading, false info

Dog feces vandalism shuts down food pantry

A few shelves set up beneath a West End community notice board were meant to offer a place where neighbours could leave food for anyone who needed it.

A Rocky day on the mayoral campaign trail for Kevin Klein

Kevin Klein acknowledges it’s hard to foresee what he’ll wake up to each morning in the final weeks of a mayoral campaign.

But the seasoned politician, who has served as both a city councillor and a provincial cabinet minister, couldn’t have predicted the events — what he describes as “drama” — that unfolded last Sunday.

Fellow mayoral candidate Mike Vogiatzakis accused Klein’s campaign team of offering him a job to drop out of the race, while a guest writer’s column in the Winnipeg Sun that questioned the deaths of Indigenous children at residential schools, just days after the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, sparked condemnation from a prominent Indigenous organization. (Klein is the CEO of the Klein Group, the company that owns the Sun. He has maintained he is not involved in its operations while running for mayor.)

The Free Press had already been scheduled to join Klein on the campaign trail Monday, intending to document a day in the life of the front-running candidate to unseat incumbent Scott Gillingham, before the controversies hit.

A Life's Story: Writer built bridges with genuine curiosity, compassion for diversity of religious practices

Brenda Suderman knew how to make people feel comfortable. For a journalist, that character trait is a real strength, and it made people trust and appreciate her.

Whether covering musicals, worship spaces, the effects of pandemic shutdowns, death rituals and practices of different traditions, the discovery of the burial of 2,284 infants in unmarked graves, or any other of the countless topics she wrote about in her four- decade career, Suderman did it with genuine interest and care.

Born and raised in Winkler, Suderman grew up on a farm. Much of her childhood was spent in gardens and sugar beet fields.

Baptized at 16, she became a member of the Winkler Bergthaler Mennonite Church. The restrictions against women at the time contributed to planting the seeds of Suderman’s feminist perspective.

Dozens of Uber, Lyft drivers switched to cheaper insurance coverage: MPI probe

Ride-service drivers have been defrauding Manitoba Public Insurance by improperly insuring their vehicles as for personal use.

The public insurer and the City of Winnipeg, which regulates ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, discovered the widespread fraud after MPI conducted a review in December last year.

“When a driver changes their coverage from ride-share insurance to a personal vehicle coverage and continues to operate as a ride-share driver, that is fraud, plain and simple,” said MPI chief executive officer Satvir Jatana at a news conference Thursday.

MPI’s review looked at a random sample of 408 ride-hailing vehicles and found 108 were operating without the proper vehicle-for-hire insurance coverage. In order to register with the city as a ride-service driver, a vehicle must have such insurance and proof must be provided to the ride-booking company.

Jets encouraged by play through first five games

Turkey. Stuffing. And a heaping helping of rest and recovery.

The Winnipeg Jets have plenty to be thankful for this holiday weekend, including a solid 3-1-1 start to the NHL campaign. Players and coaches are also counting their blessings at finally getting a breather after a busy stretch of five games in eight days.

“We don’t have another (break like this) until a week before Christmas. So we’re going to take advantage of it,” head coach Scott Arniel said following the club’s first regulation loss, a 5-1 stinker on Friday night against the visiting Anaheim Ducks.

To borrow a funny old Thanksgiving-related phrase from former defenceman Nate Schmidt, the hockey club was “leaking gravy.” They looked like a group that could use a timeout — which they’ll get since they don’t play again until hosting the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.

Protein crests current appetite wave

Holiday feasts often reflect the latest fads and trends influencing how we eat.

This Thanksgiving’s table is likely to feature more Canadian content than it might otherwise as a point of national pride.

In the recent past, the carb-free craze has made cauliflower a substitute for the mashed potatoes on some family spreads. Some have gone meatless, while others have added more. Still others offer gluten-free, dairy-free or fat-free alternatives.

Nowadays, it seems consumers can’t get enough protein. Desmond Sobool, deputy chief economist Farm Credit Canada, told a recent economic update for the agri-food sector there are two converging influences in play.