Patients in Morden-Winkler area at risk as exhausted nurses reach ‘breaking point, hospital worker says By: Chris Kitching Posted: 5:43 PM CST Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024

Seven Wilsons, one regional spirit

In Dryden, Ont., a 34-metre suspension bridge crosses the Wabigoon River rapids. It is named after a man who paid for a quarter of the bridge himself. A plaque recognizes Roy Wilson’s “many contributions to City Revitalization” and mentions his 40 years in the Rotary Club, whose motto is “service above self”.

My father sold business machines from the 1970s through the ’90s, during the shift from carbon copy machines and typewriters to photocopiers, fax machines, and early office computers and printers. His sales territory — which he covered mostly by car but also by propeller plane — was Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, Manitoba, and northwestern Ontario, though much of it really belonged to the Wilsons.

In business machines, selling the machine was only half the job — the other half was ensuring a technician would fix it in January. Wilson’s set the standard for dealers across most of my dad’s regions. My father worked with Roy’s son Greg (who would later go on to become mayor of Dryden) but really respected Roy for teaching Greg to run the company with the towns they served as the priority.

Wilson’s service routes went beyond where roads stopped. Even if customers lived north of the highway system, Wilson’s still found a way to help, using three company planes based at the Dryden airport. As a result, a stationery shop from a paper mill town served all of northwestern Ontario and later northern Manitoba. Imagine a photocopier strapped into a small plane, a technician beside it, and a gravel runway waiting at the other end.

Band keeps plight of MMIWG close to heart on new track

Gabrielle Fontaine won’t stop talking about them and neither will her bandmates.

As a teenager, the Winnipeg songwriter — whose late father Vince was the passionate leader of musical projects including Eagle & Hawk — would volunteer at Wiping Away the Tears, an annual gathering hosted by Ka Ni Kanichihk that offers space for healing, ceremony and support for relatives of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

Though Indigenous people make up less than five per cent of the Canadian population, Indigenous women make up 16 per cent of all female homicide victims and 11 per cent of missing women, according to the Assembly of First Nations.

Seeking a way to help in the community, Fontaine regularly volunteered as a child-minder during memorial events, an experience she says shaped her outlook as a musical storyteller.

Telekinetic teen hits small screen

At desperate times like these, it’s good to be reminded that one person can make a difference. A telekinetic high schooler, grieving lover, ambitious law firm, frantic father and spiritual climber offer a variety of inspiring lessons in this new offering of TV recommendations.

Carrie (series premières Wednesday, Oct. 7 on Prime Video)Famously over-the-top filmmaker Brian De Palma (Phantom of the Paradise, Dressed to Kill, Scarface) directed the 1976 Carrie into its status as one of the scariest films of the time and beyond. It became better known than the debut horror novel by Stephen King from which it was adapted. It even trumped the three adaptations that followed. This new TV series looks ready to challenge that supremacy. Taking the title role made famous by Sissy Spacek, Manitoba actress Summer H. Howell (see Randall King’s interview at wfp.to/carrie) plays a homeschooler thrilled to finally be allowed to attend public high school. But when the mean girls begin circling and blood manifests in scary new ways, the new girl’s telekinetic potential blossoms in spectacular fashion. Also of horrific note as Halloween approaches: Below (Netflix miniseries premièring Thursday) stars Josh Hartnett as a fisherman trying to protect his family and town from a mysterious sea creature; Eternally Yours (sitcom premièring Thursday, Oct. 8, on CBS/Global) is a new vampire comedy; and Crystal Lake (thriller series premières Oct. 15 on Crave) stars Linda Cardellini (DTF St. Louis) as Pam Voorhees, single mom of a tormented kid named Jason, in this Friday the 13th origin story. Boo!

Small Prophets (series Canadian première Wednesday, Oct. 7, on Apple TV)Canadian fans of British TV have been champing at the bit for this quirky series since its acclaimed U.K. première in February. It’s a shaggy, quietly hilarious character study in the vein of Detectorists (2014-22, AcornTV), both of which were created by Mackenzie Crook (Pirates of the Caribbean), who also starred in Detectorists and plays a supporting role in Small Prophets. When the new story opens, Michael Sleep (Detectorists’ Pearce Quigley) is living a life of quiet desperation, visiting his father (Sir Michael Palin) and pining for the return of his disappeared beloved, Clea. Until, that is, Dad shares a loony alchemical recipe that sparks hope in Michael that he might be able to summon spirits to then summon Clea to … the garden shed? Not as creepy as it sounds? A tale of hope, frustratingly indirect action, meddlesome and ineffectual neighbours and, of course, true, true love.

Sidney Crosby sings praises of Jets' Bjorck, summer training partner Barron

PITTSBURGH — It wasn’t that long ago when the shoe was on the other foot for Sidney Crosby.

Patients in Morden-Winkler area at risk as exhausted nurses reach ‘breaking point, hospital worker says

A critical nursing shortage at one of Manitoba’s biggest regional hospitals is putting patient safety at risk and is likely to get worse, an employee told the Free Press Tuesday.

Internal documents show in-patient and emergency nursing vacancies at Boundary Trails Health Centre recently climbed to 52 per cent, forcing administrators to consider merging units and closing some beds.

“How did our facility let it get this bad? That’s the biggest question people have,” said the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I’ve never seen the morale so low at Boundary Trails.

“This has been coming for a very long time, and they (administrators) have no plan in place.”

Clocks stay in daylight saving, but analysis backs permanent standard time

VANCOUVER - Ralph Mistlberger's light is adjustable, allowing him to have the full spectrum of options depending on what his internal clock needs.

"You want cool in the morning. You want warm in the evening or warm in the afternoon," he said.

"And so, it goes from being more bluish in the morning to more reddish in the evenings. Both of those are important because artificial light affects your clock."

Mistlberger knows real sunlight is better than a lamp, but after more than 40 years as a neuroscientist studying sleep and the body's circadian rhythms, he's preparing for what's to come Nov. 1.