Good morning!
Your forecast: Worried about your precious tomatoes? Fear not. While an overnight frost warning was well-intended, the mercury never fell below 4 C so the fruits of your labour should be safe and ready to pick, slice and place on toast this morning. A breakfast of champions, as it were, to celebrate the wonderful weekend to come. Expect a mild day and a high of 19 C, while Saturday’s high is 24 C. On Sunday, it really gets cooking with a high of 26 C under a clear, sunny sky. So, get downtown and enjoy Manyfest, the city’s largest outdoor festival, which runs tonight through Sunday. It features, live music, markets, kids zone, a cycling event, food trucks and a beer garden.
In case you missed it
CPConservative Leader Stephen Harper speaks to supporters during a campaign event in Whitehorse, Y.T., on Friday, Sept. 4. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press)
Canada will help, Harper vows: Stephen Harper has pledged Thursday that Canada will be “a world leader” in helping Syrian refugees resettle. Speaking in Prince Edward Island, the prime minister said the government will make some kind of tangible move, presumably to allow more refugees to enter the country. Four million people have fled the country since the civil war broke out in 2011. READ MORE
Future of fire stations: Closing five city fire stations could save the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service $17 million dollars, a report says. But that money would quickly be spent on upgrading the remaining fire halls and deploying staff into other much-needed areas. An administrative report doesn’t list the stations that could be affected, but WFPS Chief John Lane told the Free Press they would likely include: the Marion and Autumnwood fire halls; three stand-alone EMS stations; and station No. 40 on Pacific near McPhillips, which is a maintenance garage.
Clash of titans postponed: Wondering how the mighty Toronto Blue Jays made out Thursday night against the Dark Side, er… the New York Yankees? You’ll be happy to know nothing has changed in the standings and the Jays are still 1.5 games ahead of NYY. That’s because the opener of a four-game series was rained out, setting up a double-header on Saturday. The clubs also play tonight and again Sunday afternoon. Toronto leads the America League East with a 79-60 record, while New York is second at 77-61 with a game in hand.
Up next
Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free PressA green chair sits near a curb in Wolseley Saturday during the city’s giveaway weekend event.
Giveaway weekend: With Winnipeg’s fall curbside giveaway weekend scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, the arbiters of morality that produce Head Start give a glowering thumb’s down to the scoundrels who violate the spirit of the twice-yearly event by driving trucks around all night collecting items that they later sell on Kijiji. Giveaway weekends are not intended as a curbside harvest for profit-hungry vultures. Be good citizens, folks.
Dragon the Red: Colorful dragon boats powered by paddlers with more enthusiasm than experience will make a splash at The Forks tonight from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The Manitoba Dragon Boat Festival also runs Saturday and Sunday, raising funds for local charities.
Indigenous Music Awards: The red carpet will be rolled out, literally, outside the MTS Centre tonight. The fun starts at 5 p.m. with free performances and a fashion show on the outdoor carpet before the main event at 6 p.m. Indoors, the show will feature performances from Armond Duck, Florent Vollant, Ghost Town Orchestra, Kimberley Dawn, Black Bear, LightningCloud, Tasha T Music, Tomson Highway and The Sayisi Survivors Dene Drum Group.
Around the water cooler
Riders wait at the bus stop on Graham Avenue at Smith Street Thursday. Winnipeggers will have to get used to a reduced level of Transit service as the department struggles with a manpower shortage and problematic buses. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press September)
Bus stop, bus stop: Staffing shortages and problematic buses mean that transit woes for Winnipeggers will continue. Transit director Dave Wardrop had no solution on Thursday for an inability to put buses on routes when so many buses are tied up with maintenance problems. However, a union official had blamed the problem on a shortage of mechanics and problematic bus maintenance issues — a situation which the city refuses, or is unable, to address. READ MORE
That’s one way to get a baby pic: Scientists used a drone to take a photo of an orca whale calf and its mother along the shores of British Columbia. The baby whale is the fifth to be born in the endangered orca population in the area since December, and researchers say they hope this year’s boom of babies represents a turnaround for the population. READ MORE
Hynde takes shot at pop stars: When it comes to making brash statements, Chrissie Hynde is no pretender. This week, the American musician told a British radio station she sees a comparison between today’s pop music stars and sex-trade workers, suggesting they are sending society the wrong messages about sex. “Maybe they’re feminists on behalf of prostitutes — but they are no feminists on behalf of music, if they are selling their music by bumping and grinding and wearing their underwear in videos,” said the former lead singer of The Pretenders. “That’s a kind of feminism — but, you know, you’re a sex worker is what you are.”
Trending now
Handout / THE CANADIAN PRESSActor Jake Gyllenhaal is shown in a scene from the film ‘Demolition.’
#TIFF: The 40th edition of the annual Toronto International Film Festival kicked off Thursday night. Jake Gyllenhaal’s film Demolition opened the 10-day event, and the actor told reporters there was no other place on the planet he wanted to premiere it.
#NeverForget911: Fourteen years ago today, terrorists hijacked two planes and crashed two into the World Trade Center in New York, while a third smashed into the side of the Pentagon in Washington. A fourth plane crash-landed on an empty field in Pennsylvania. In all, 2,977 were killed in the terrorist attack.
On this date
On Sept. 11, 1875: The Daily Free Press reported that Bishop Bourget of Montreal called on his people not to allow Joseph Guibord’s funeral to take place. The night before, a mob assailed the guards on Guilbord’s body with stones, but they were driven off when the guards fired a volley. Inspired by the engineering feat of the Suez Canal, the newspaper opined on the possibility of an underground tunnel between France and England, and a project to turn the great desert of the Sahara into an arm of the sea. Temperance organizations in Winnipeg took steps towards the abolition of saloons, petitioning city council to license no more of the establishments.
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