Top News – Winnipeg Free Press

Kinder, gentler drug crackdown finds support, tempered expectations in Main Street area

Chris Kitching 8 minute read Yesterday at 7:11 PM CDT

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Lac du Bonnet slowly healing from devastating fire

Nicole Buffie 6 minute read Preview

Lac du Bonnet slowly healing from devastating fire

Nicole Buffie 6 minute read Yesterday at 6:32 PM CDT

LAC DU BONNET — Fifteen months after devastating wildfires ripped through Lac du Bonnet, claiming two lives and destroying more than a dozen homes, residents are trying their best to build back better.

Along the winding gravel path that is Wendigo Road outside Lac du Bonnet, new timber peeks through patches of charred forest. Homes and cottages are beginning to take shape after fire raced through the neighbourhood at record speed and levelled at least 18 homes on the road.

Table saws and nail guns ring in the distance while Brian Curtis plots out where his new cottage will go. Curtis bought his previous cottage 19 years ago and had recently levelled the foundation.

He and his wife, Pam, had been thinking about long-term renovations when the May 13, 2025 fire swept away all their work and memories.

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Yesterday at 6:32 PM CDT

Local

Policing predatory platforms

Can federal legislation effectively rein in social media’s opaque algorithms and deceptive design features?

Marsha McLeod 12 minute read Yesterday at 1:44 PM CDT

Local

First responders at Highway 110 and Richmond Avenue East in Brandon after the crash that killed Xiaoyun Zhang. (Alex Lambert/The Brandon Sun files)

Trucking operation linked to fatality in Brandon shut down by Alberta government

Malak Abas 5 minute read Preview

Trucking operation linked to fatality in Brandon shut down by Alberta government

Malak Abas 5 minute read Yesterday at 5:24 PM CDT

The Alberta government has shut down Conquer Transport Inc., the trucking company linked to a crash near Brandon in which a 49-year-old woman, who had the right of way, was killed.

Devin Dreeshen, Alberta’s transport minister, said the province launched an investigation into Conquer Transport after one of its semi-trucks ran a stop sign on May 27, 2026 at Highway 110 at Richmond Avenue East.

The semi hit an SUV driven by Xiaoyun Zhang, a Chinese immigrant who worked at the nearby pork processing plant. She died at the scene and the truck driver, 35-year-old Brijpal Panwar, has been charged with dangerous driving causing death.

“Our investigative team went out and … saw numerous non-compliance issues, whether it was hours of service with their drivers not being recorded properly, vehicle maintenance and inspections being insufficient, their safety program also being insufficient.”

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Yesterday at 5:24 PM CDT

The Arts

Mike Sudoma / Free Press Files
A shopper examines fresh onions on a Saturday morning at the St. Norbert Farmers’ Market.

That’s freshtastic!

Farm to table is better, friendlier, tastier

AV Kitching 8 minute read Yesterday at 5:36 PM CDT

Bomber Report

Mike Sudoma / Free Press
The face of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defence, Willie Jefferson likes to be consistent in his game day routine, including the night before kickoff.

Jefferson all about consistency

Face of the Bombers defensive line shares game day routine

Taylor Allen 8 minute read Yesterday at 5:48 PM CDT

Opinion

A measure of hope a decade after senseless death, injustice Niigaan Sinclair Yesterday at 3:29 PM CDT
Livestreamed mental-health meltdown underscores medium’s disturbing decline Melissa Martin Updated: Yesterday at 4:42 PM CDT
The true costs of your pet — for everyone Jerry Storie Updated: Yesterday at 11:36 AM CDT

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A capture of the alert sent July 22 afternoon after a provincewide 911 service disruption. (Supplied)

No critical incidents, adverse public safety events resulted from July 911 outage, Bell says in report to CRTC

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Preview

No critical incidents, adverse public safety events resulted from July 911 outage, Bell says in report to CRTC

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:29 PM CDT

The telecommunications outage that prevented Manitobans outside Winnipeg from contacting 911 for several hours last month did not result in “critical incidents or adverse public safety outcomes,” Bell Canada says.

Bell, which runs Manitoba’s 911 network, issued its post-incident report on the July 22 outage to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on Thursday.

In total, calls to 911 made by 84 people from 11:40 a.m. to 3:25 p.m. could not be routed to the public safety call centre in Brandon. That facility answers 911 calls for most of the province outside Winnipeg.

Officials at the 911 call centre in Brandon advised Bell that, as of Thursday, there had been no reported critical incidents or public-safety issues as a result of the missed calls, the telecom company said in its report.

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Yesterday at 2:29 PM CDT

Local

Pharmacists who have taken the training can issue several prescription contraceptives, including oral contraceptive pills (pictured), hormonal patches, vaginal rings and intramuscular contraceptive injections, the province said. (Rich Pedroncelli / The Associated Press files)

Province allows pharmacists to prescribe birth control; more services coming, Asagwara says

Maggie Macintosh 4 minute read Preview

Province allows pharmacists to prescribe birth control; more services coming, Asagwara says

Maggie Macintosh 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:02 PM CDT

Manitoba pharmacists have new powers to assess for, prescribe and administer birth control.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced an expanded scope of practice — although limitations on the profession remain the strictest in Canada — during a news conference Friday.

“This means that people will be able to access contraception more quickly, more conveniently and closer to home,” Asagwara told reporters inside the legislature.

The minister touted the regulatory changes, which came into effect Tuesday, as an expansion of the province’s free birth control initiative.

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Updated: Yesterday at 6:02 PM CDT

Local

Kinew commits $500M for final phase of North End sewage treatment plant upgrade

Joyanne Pursaga 4 minute read Yesterday at 5:09 PM CDT

The Manitoba government will provide $500 million for the final phase of the North End sewage treatment plant upgrade, granting a long-standing request by the city.

“This is a big project that will allow for more housing and it’s an important project, not just from an environmental standpoint, but… for the Manitoba economy,” Premier Wab Kinew said in an email.

He said the province will help the city to “deliver this project on budget” and support its request for another $500 million from the federal government.

The premier was not available for further comment Friday on the contribution toward the third phase of the upgrade, a $1.57-billion project that would greatly reduce the amount of algae-promoting nutrients that flow out of the plant.

Faith

A special isolated prisoner cell is shown during a media tour of the Toronto South Detention Centre in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013. The facility is slated to open this fall. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Abolitionist to the core

Quaker movement fuelled by a fierce sense of social justice

Josiah Neufeld 10 minute read Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026

Arts & Entertainment

Newspapers owned by SaltWire Network Inc. are photographed in Halifax on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

Ottawa commissions project to track ‘news deserts’ in Canada

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Preview

Ottawa commissions project to track ‘news deserts’ in Canada

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Updated: 11:46 AM CDT

OTTAWA - The federal government is working on a project that would map out areas of Canada that lack local news coverage.

"Canadian Heritage has recently engaged a team of independent industry experts to develop a local news directory — a multi-phase, multi-year project that will ultimately measure the extent and spread of news deserts and areas of news poverty in Canada," the department said in a December memo to the culture minister.

The memo, obtained through access-to-information law, said the government is responding to stakeholder calls for better data and that the information would allow it to better target its policy efforts.

A separate document for the deputy minister of Canadian Heritage said the project is a response to a long-standing problem.

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Updated: 11:46 AM CDT

Canada

Lights are seen illuminated on a boat and dock at a waterfront home as smoke from the Quilpituk Creek wildfire fills the air while the fire reflects off Okanagan Lake near Fintry, B.C., late Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

20,000 flee as explosive B.C. wildfire races toward Summerland, burning homes in path

The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

20,000 flee as explosive B.C. wildfire races toward Summerland, burning homes in path

The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: 11:47 AM CDT

SUMMERLAND - More than 20,000 residents have been forced to evacuate British Columbia communities along Okanagan Lake overnight, some plucked to safety by helicopter as an explosive wildfire surged toward them, destroying homes in its path.

Evacuation orders cover the entire community of Summerland, population 12,000, while a further 8,000 were told to flee in and around Peachland, both on the western shore of the lake in the B.C. Interior.

Officials have not tallied destruction from the fire that erupted late Friday, but the flame front overwhelmed the smaller community of Faulder as the Bald Range wildfire closed the 15-kilometre distance to Summerland in just a few hours.

Social media videos showed multiple homes ablaze as residents fled, with fire on both sides of the road.

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Updated: 11:47 AM CDT

The Arts

The view from here: Phyllis Green. Boob Tree, 1975

2 minute read Preview

The view from here: Phyllis Green. Boob Tree, 1975

2 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

Staycation: The Art of Being Here feautres more than 100 Manitoba-related artworks from the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq collection, spanning the past 50 years. These pieces reveal how the places around us are layered with memory, story and lived experience. Over the coming weeks, the Free Press will spotlight works from this eclectic exhibition, each one offering a new way of seeing home. Experience it in person and enjoy some staycation time at the gallery, on view until December.

Phyllis Green. Boob Tree, 1975

(Yarn, wood. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Acquired with funds from the Estate of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Naylor, funds administered by The Winnipeg Foundation, 2014-128. Photo: Ernest Mayer.)

The year 1975 was designated International Women’s Year by the United Nations, and in celebration, the WAG staged the show Images of Women, which explored how women had historically been depicted, an impressive selection but by mostly male artists. Amid pushback from the community, Sharron Zenith Corne and Marian Yeo organized a second exhibition, Woman as Viewer, which challenged those portrayals by only featuring works by women. It was called the first Canadian exhibition of feminist art. American artist Phyllis Green’s Boob Tree, a four-foot-tall crochet sculpture of a cluster of breasts, adorned the exhibit posters, which were so popular they were snatched by passersby! The sculpture is playful and unsettling, re-appropriating the objectification of women’s bodies.

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2:01 AM CDT