Massachusetts governor: Pharmacies must stock abortion pills

Brandon meat packer thriving on its own

BRANDON — Canada Packers has strengthened its business and laid the foundation for future growth during its first year as an independent company, its president says.

The Brandon-based pork producer, separated from Maple Leaf Foods in October 2025, established its own leadership, strategy, systems, culture and identity while continuing operations across its hog production farms and regional hog barns in southern and eastern Manitoba.

The company’s first year was focused on building a successful standalone business while continuing to serve customers, communities and shareholders, president Dennis Organ said.

“Market conditions over the past year have been more challenging than we anticipated when we became a separate entity,” he said in an email. “Despite that, we continued to execute against our priorities, including increasing processing volumes, maintaining disciplined operations and strengthening the business.”

Modern myths: RWB updates classic Slavic folk tales as part of Stravinsky-based double bill

Two stories, two choreographers, one composer: the Royal Winnipeg Ballet opens its 2026/27 season with a double bill that celebrates the influential works of Igor Stravinsky.

Stravinsky Stories, which runs Thursday to Sunday at the Centennial Concert Hall, pairs veteran Russian-Ukrainian choreographer (and former RWB principal dancer) Alexei Ratmansky’s The Fairy’s Kiss with the world première of emerging Chicago-born choreographer Houston Thomas’s Firebird.

Much like Tchaikovsky before him, Stravinsky was a composer who took commissions for ballets, but there are actually no definitive versions of either of these works, says RWB artistic director Christopher Stowell.

“Unlike Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty, where there’s sort of a blueprint of a classical production that most people follow, there have been famous productions of both The Fairy’s Kiss and Firebird, but there isn’t one that everyone’s following at all,” he says.

MPI lowers speed limit on tech upgrade with ‘IT roadmap’ following Project Nova debacle

Manitoba Public Insurance is now using an “IT road map” and phasing in new technology and systems after pulling the plug last year on its failed $164-million overhaul known as Project Nova, its annual report says.

Bombers on outside looking in after beatdown from Als

The visitors’ locker room at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium was eerily quiet late Saturday night.

Many of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers sat in their stalls with dejected looks on their faces, trying to wrap their heads around what had just transpired: a 37-10 beatdown at the hands of the Montreal Alouettes.

“(That game) felt like s—-, honestly,” receiver Tim White told the Free Press postgame.

And the Bombers have plenty of reason to feel that way, especially when looking at the West Division standings.

Transgender air force member fined for 17 Wing Winnipeg protest

A transgender military member has been fined in a case where she was Tasered while fighting to have her gender identity changed on her file.

Royal Canadian Air Force Sgt. Athena Morris was fined $2,000 for unlawfully entering a restricted area at 17 Wing Winnipeg on March 31, 2025, when she demanded the gender marker on her file be changed. Morris, a transgender woman, said she had been trying to get her gender identifier changed since January of that year.

The incident was a culmination of “months of friction,” defence counsel Maj. Carlos Da Cruz told military judge Stephen Strickey Monday during a hearing at HMCS Chippawa, a Royal Canadian Navy Reserve division in Winnipeg.

Da Cruz told court Morris was misgendered by colleagues and superiors and told she wasn’t allowed to use the women’s bathrooms or showers.