Stranded campers able to leave drenched Kananaskis Country in southern Alberta

Is a better Winnipeg on the horizon?

Four Free Press columnists weigh in on the challenges ahead and how the city can become better.

Stranded campers able to leave drenched Kananaskis Country in southern Alberta

KANANASKIS - The Alberta government says crews have finished evacuating remaining campers who were tucked away at sites in Kananaskis Country.

Parks Alberta Minister Todd Loewen said earlier in the day that about 50 people were sheltering in place in the area, which remains under a local state of emergency.

In a later post on social media, Loewen says everyone in the area can leave safely.

More than 100 kilometres of roads in provincial parks along Alberta's Rocky Mountains had been closed because of landslides and flooding.

Province invests $3.8M in culinary arts training facility for francophone high school students

A new dedicated culinary arts training facility will give francophone high school students a place to learn the trade in French.

The Manitoba government announced this week that it is providing $3.8 million toward the purchase of a property at 170 Marion St. and beginning design work for its renovation.

The facility will be the first dedicated vocational education site operated by Division scolaire franco-manitobaine, and the first fully French-language culinary arts program for Grade 11 and 12 students, preparing them for work in the restaurant and service sector.

“French-language education is a fundamental part of Manitoba’s identity and strength,” Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said in a news release. “It is an exciting step that will help strengthen both the francophone community and our skilled workforce.”

Bombers let another one slip away and face pivotal issue

Mike O’Shea summed it up best.

“That one doesn’t feel very good.”

Nor should it.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers started out hot Friday night, only to run out of gas down the stretch and allow the visiting Toronto Argonauts to steal a 30-28 victory.

The wheels on the bus burned down, down, down…

Up on the high ground, a year after the big forest fire in Newfoundland’s Conception Bay North, and the bare rock is startling.

It’s ghostly. The little birds flit and chirp from the naked silver bare-wood branches, and a solitary northern flicker makes its call from — somewhere. But mostly, it’s still, and silent. With the underbrush gone, you can see how little animal life is here right now.

But the most astounding thing is underfoot. On the high rock behind Adam’s Cove and away from the sea, not only are the trees and low brush gone, but much of the soil has burned away as well.

It burned very, very hot.

Local Muslims, Indigenous people hold interfaith event

Bannock with wild rice and samosas with halal beef stew were served in equal measure as Indigenous and Muslim Winnipeggers sought common ground at an interfaith event discussing truth and reconciliation Sunday.

The Islamic Social Services Association’s second annual Muslim-Indigenous Solidarity event recognized Orange Shirt Day through conversations with elders, shared prayers and crafting.

Organizer Shahina Siddiqui said many of the people attending the gathering, held at Canadian Mennonite University, share the traumatic impacts of colonialism.

Siddiqui said she herself had attended a Catholic day school in her home country of Pakistan, where she and other students were forced to speak English, and were hurt if they didn’t. Many Muslim-majority countries, she said, have been harmed by colonialism.