
Julia-Simone Rutgers
Reporter
Julia-Simone Rutgers is a climate reporter with a focus on Manitoba’s environmental issues. Her position is part of a three-year partnership between the Winnipeg Free Press and The Narwhal, funded by the Winnipeg Foundation.
Before taking on this new collaboration, Rutgers served as the first-ever writer in residence at the Walrus magazine. She has written daily news for the Free Press and the Star Metro Halifax, and has a smattering of bylines in the Globe and Mail, the Coast, and the Discourse.
Though she has lived on both coasts, she grew up in Calgary and feels at most at home lounging on riverbanks under the wide open prairie skies.
In her spare time, she dabbles in music-making, visual art curation, writing poetry and exploring the forests, fields, lakes and rivers Manitoba has to offer.
Recent articles of Julia-Simone Rutgers
Libraries in the U.S. and Canada are changing how they refer to Indigenous Peoples
6 minute read Preview Friday, Aug. 5, 2022This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site.
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Author: Julia Bullard, Assistant Professor in Information Studies, University of British Columbia
The two largest agencies responsible for the language we use to discover books in libraries in North America — the Library of Congress in the United States, and Library and Archives Canada — are changing how they refer to Indigenous Peoples.
Peguis leaders, residents say flood-fatigued First Nation in desperate need of support
20 minute read Preview Saturday, Jul. 30, 2022Joey Chestnut is chomp champ again in July 4 hot dog contest
3 minute read Preview Monday, Jul. 4, 2022Free parking helps keep councillors driving to city hall
6 minute read Preview Monday, Jul. 4, 2022Winnipeg’s shiny plan for net-zero emissions
12 minute read Preview Saturday, Jul. 2, 2022Compost Winnipeg fills a gap in city services
15 minute read Preview Friday, Jun. 10, 2022Next city council needs to up its green game, advocates say
4 minute read Preview Thursday, Jun. 9, 2022America's love affair with the lawn is getting messy
5 minute read Preview Friday, May. 6, 2022Review: 'Funny Farm' a warm memoir of rescue in many forms
3 minute read Preview Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022Manitoba lags in mental-health care
4 minute read Preview Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022ACTIVITIES continue throughout the week surrounding Bell Let’s Talk Day on Wednesday, dedicated to raising awareness about mental health issues in an effort to fight social stigma. It is considered to be the largest corporate commitment to mental health in Canada. But, are stigma and lack of awareness the biggest problems impacting those with mental illness in Canada?
Up to 70 per cent of problems brought to family physicians in Manitoba have a mental-health component, suggesting people are already comfortable reaching out to discuss their mental health needs. It’s what comes next, the actual help that is required, that so many Canadians, especially Manitobans, are lacking.
A 2018 study found that 28 per cent of adult Manitobans have a diagnosed mental disorder, and this has only increased since the COVID-19 pandemic started. A national survey by Dr. David Dozois in 2021 found that the number of respondents who rated their anxiety as high to extremely high quadrupled (from five per cent to 20 per cent) and the number of respondents with high self-reported depression more than doubled (from four per cent to 10 per cent) since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And while family doctors are most commonly the first point of contact for those struggling with mental health concerns, these physicians do not typically have the time or training to treat such issues. Thus, individuals are left to navigate how to access mental-health practitioners such as psychologists, only to be met with significant barriers.
Murals bring colour, play, inspiration
6 minute read Preview Monday, Nov. 22, 2021Winnipeg Railway Museum to shutter at end of year
3 minute read Preview Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021Another dry year raises concern for future
4 minute read Preview Monday, Nov. 8, 2021Harvest Manitoba mandates vaccines for staff, volunteers in preparation for holidays
4 minute read Preview Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021Warm temps keep golfers off their duffs
3 minute read Preview Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021Teacher hurt at unsafe door to receive $81K: judge
4 minute read Preview Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021A Virden-area school division will have to pay out more than $80,000, after a substitute teacher was injured in an incident involving a student.
In a decision delivered last week, a Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench judge ruled the Fort La Bosse School Division bears full responsibility for an Oct. 16, 2015, event in which a senior substitute teacher suffered a broken hip after a student flung open a door in a rush before class.
In the early morning, the then-16-year-old and a teammate were late for an out-of-town volleyball tournament. The Grade 11 student at Virden Collegiate Institute was “speed-walking” through the halls with his gym bag and a bag of volleyballs to meet his coach in the parking lot. The coach had told the teen to “hurry,” court documents show.
Arriving at a back door, unable to see through the high window and having his hands full with volleyball equipment, the teen pushed the door open with his hip, court records state. At the same time, 66-year-old Emma Lou Evanson was bending over to unlock the door with her staff key.
MMF to invest in child care, seniors housing in The Pas
4 minute read Preview Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021Rising demand for federal inquiry into Sixties Scoop
4 minute read Preview Monday, Nov. 1, 2021Diwali celebrations dispel darkness of pandemic
5 minute read Preview Monday, Nov. 1, 2021Support for democracy in Sudan urged
3 minute read Preview Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021“Something is going wrong in a country called Sudan,” Mekki Mohamed cried into a microphone on the front steps of Manitoba’s legislature Saturday. “We want democracy back.”
As Mohamed spoke, the nearly 60 people gathered below him cheered, affirming their support for citizens of a country torn apart by a violent military coup this week. Sudanese and Canadian flags waved high together above the crowd, as Sudanese-Canadian families and their supporters chanted “Action, action for Sudan.”
On Monday, Sudanese military leader Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan dissolved the country’s tenuous transitional government — where military and civilian leaders had shared power since ousting Omar al-Bashir in 2019 — by arresting civilians, including Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and his wife, and opening fire on civilian protesters.
Monday morning, Sudanese Canadians woke to the disturbing images of violence, “widespread arrest and torture” of civil protesters in their home country, Sudanese immigrant Hassan Babiker told the crowd gathered in Winnipeg Saturday.
Colourful costumes big part of Comiccon return
4 minute read Preview Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021Winnipeg high-rise residents decry compensation offer for weeks without water
4 minute read Preview Friday, Oct. 29, 2021Union seeks minimum wage hikes for security guards
4 minute read Preview Monday, Oct. 25, 2021The minimum wage for security guards has been frozen for years despite the previous government’s instituting special remuneration more than two dollars above Manitoba’s general minimum wage.
As a government under a new Progressive Conservative leader looms, the union representing private security guards is asking the two Tory leadership candidates to commit to those minimum wage increases.
“When you hear about the anti-vaxxers, you hear about the anti-maskers, the people who believe that COVID is made up — they’re taking it out on the first person who tries to enforce the public health orders, which is quite often the security guard,” United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 834 president Jeff Traeger said.
“They’re getting the brunt of that anger, and in some cases, they’re being attacked violently.”