Remove bird feeders to battle spread of deadly parasite, bird society urges

Now-independent ex-Tory leader skips legislature’s first question period in four months

Crime rates, the cost of living and the state of health care were on the agenda Tuesday when the legislature’s fall sitting began a day after Obby Khan’s abrupt resignation from the Tory caucus.

Winnipeg Book Festival starts a new chapter

Once known as Thin Air, the 2026 Winnipeg Book Festival marks a new chapter heading into its 29th year celebrating fiction, non-fiction and poetry with a new name, new staff and a shorter, more streamlined fest based at The Forks.

Thursday kicks off with a festival blessing and two events with Indigenous authors. Story Lodge (noon to 2 p.m.) features two videos from the new series by Rosanna Deerchild and Kim Wheeler profiling Indigenous authors working in a range of genres. From 3 to 4 p.m., a quartet of children’s authors will discuss the importance of storytelling and Indigenous languages and culture. The Love Local event on Thursday at 6 p.m., brings together a trio of Winnipeg authors — C.C. Benison, Philipp Schott and Margaret Sweatman — all working in different genres.

On Friday at noon, Niigaan Sinclair, Noé Préfontaine and Anna Dewar will discuss author Elaine Dewar’s posthumously released Oblivious, which explores the dark legacy of Canada’s residential schools and segregated hospitals. That event will be followed at 1:30 p.m. by a panel including Samantha Beiko, Ericka Fiddler and Kirsten Wurmann talking about a forthcoming graphic novel from the Prison Libraries Committee.

Aspiring writers will want to attend the 7x7 event Friday at 3 p.m., featuring seven speakers (including author Zilla Jones, publisher Kyla Neufeld and Chris Hall of McNally Robinson) each offering seven-minute presentations about writing and publishing. Both Saturday and Sunday kick off with river walks with writers at 10 a.m.

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.

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.

What does the PC stand for in party’s name? Seems to be Pretty Confused

It should have been obvious from the beginning that the Manitoba Progressive Conservative party was going to have trouble holding itself together under Obby Khan.