A look at Alberta’s ‘open for summer’ plan to lift COVID-19 restrictions

Artist’s inspired work brings Red River Métis story back to Portage and Main

Jennine Krauchi calls them the “grandmothers.” “They speak to you very silently. You never hear a word, but they speak,” Krauchi says, referring to the antique pieces of Métis needlework she’s carefully studied for years. But there are few precedents for her latest art project: a 85-foot-wide by 32-foot-high chain curtain of Métis needlework that drapes over the historic Bank of Montreal’s neoclassical facade.

Winnipeg-produced podcast Careers Under Construction keeps rolling for Pederson Group

It could have been the CEO’s corner office or a boardroom, but instead it’s a media production studio.

Eight storeys above the corner of Portage Avenue and Main Street, the 300-square-foot room in the Pederson Group’s headquarters at 201 Portage Ave. is outfitted with comfortable chairs, a plant and black drapes that block out natural light and control the acoustics.

There are three video cameras, two computers, a few microphones and a variety of portable video lights. All told, the equipment is worth more than $70,000.

It’s here where two of the Winnipeg recruitment firm’s five staff members — Justis Pederson, president and CEO, and Cassie Bezan, director of creative communications — produce Careers Under Construction, a weekly, hour-long podcast featuring interviews Pederson conducts with Manitoba business people.

A look at Alberta's 'open for summer' plan

EDMONTON - The Alberta government detailed a plan Wednesday to reopen businesses, activities and services impacted by public health rules meant to curb the spread of COVID-19. Here are the three stages set out by the province:

Stage 1:This stage is to start Tuesday, two weeks after 50 per cent of Albertans 12 and older received at least one dose of vaccine and COVID-19 hospitalizations went below 800.

— The limit on outdoor social gatherings increases to 10 people. Indoor social gatherings are still not permitted.

— Outdoor patio dining at restaurants can resume with a maximum of four people from the same household at the same table. Those who live alone can dine with two close contacts.

Exhibition examines the bonds we make with humanoid objects

For the past few years, Winnipeg visual artist Emilie St-Hilaire has been fascinated by the way humans relate to artificial bodies — dolls, robots, mannequins — through play, care and connection, and how those synthetic relationships can produce very real emotions in humans.

Objects of Fidelity: Barbies, bots, bébés, her solo exhibition on view now at La Maison des artistes visuels francophones, explores this space between object and companion. It’s what she calls the “visual culmination” of work that began with her 2024 PhD dissertation at Concordia University in Montreal, which examined Reborn Dolls — hyper-realistic art dolls that resemble newborns — from a feminist perspective.

But when a robot included in the exhibition started malfunctioning and giving signs that it was at the end of its life, St-Hilaire was given a new question to puzzle: what does it mean for a robot, or any other artificial body, to “die”?

To understand that, one must first understand how these human attachments to humanlike objects form in the first place.

Education minister’s reasons for revoking teacher’s licence ‘not good enough,’ judge decides

A Manitoba judge has rejected the education minister’s decision to end a teacher’s career because he repeatedly messaged with a 13-year-old girl on social media.