Your forecast
Sunny. Wind up to 15 km/h. High -19 C, wind chill -39 this morning and -28 this afternoon. Risk of frostbite.
What’s happening today
🎸 Tired Cossack, FIINN and Witchy Woods perform at the Granite Curling Club, starting at 8:30 p.m. Tickets $23, available online.
🎫 Winnipeg intermedia artist Freya Björg Olafson’s MÆ — Motion Aftereffect, which premièred at Prairie Theatre Exchange in 2019 and is being presented by Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers tonight and through the weekend, blends performance, choreography, virtual reality, motion capture and internet-sourced testimonies to interrogate how we show up in and move through the world, physically and digitally. Rachel Browne Theatre, 211 Bannatyne Ave., tonight at 7:30. Jen Zoratti has a preview here.
Freya Olafson embraces glitch and error while projecting overlapping versions of her body behind her. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press)
Today’s must-read
There’s a life-and-death struggle unfolding on Toronto’s Augusta Avenue, although you’d hardly know it from the sleepy morning calm that lingers, waiting for the impending buzz of the morning commute.
The one exception to the quiet is 260 Augusta Ave., where about two dozen people have gathered outside The Neighbourhood Group Community Services (TNGCS), a multi-headed hydra of social and health services.
The building hosts a mash-up of a half-dozen or so agencies that provide everything from supportive housing to a food bank, child care, primary health care and a broad array of support for the homeless, addicted and those suffering from mental illness.
And then there’s KMOPS.
Separate desks where people can use pre-obtained substances in a safe space at the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site (KMOPS) in Toronto. (Marta Iwanek / Free Press)
The Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site occupies a 400-square-foot office on the first floor of TNGCS. On a daily basis, roughly two dozen people will visit. Most are there to test their drugs for fatal additives. Others come in for clean needles.
About one-in-four visits involve a client who will use drugs in a supervised setting to ensure they do not overdose or suffer other adverse reactions.
KMOPS is, by the most important metrics, a success; in the six years it has operated, there has not been a single overdose death.
From from Vancouver to the Maritimes, critics express concerns facilities that provide environments for safer consumption of illicit drugs promote increased, open drug use and serve as a catalyst for crime of all types.
Manitoba’s NDP government is getting a first-hand view of the challenges of establishing such a centre. Dan Lett has the story.
On the bright side
It wasn’t all that long ago when the proverbial skate was on the other foot for Dylan Samberg.
The Winnipeg Jets defenceman could only smile and chuckle when asked about the idea of serving as a mentor for top prospect Elias Salomonsson after the morning skate and prior to taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
“It’s weird. I was in his shoes a few years ago,” said Samberg, who turned 27 last week. “Now to be called a mentor is a little bit different. It makes me feel old. It’s good. I’m just trying to help him as much as possible and trying to make sure he has fun while he’s doing it.”
The fun factor has been apparent for both Samberg and Salomonsson of late, as the duo has been seeing plenty of high-leverage minutes against the most skilled forwards of the opponents in recent games. Ken Wiebe has more here.
Winnipeg Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg’s (left) calm demeanour has helped in his new role as mentor for the up-and-coming players on the roster.(Julio Cortez / The Associated Press files)
On this date
On Jan. 30, 1967: The Winnipeg Free Press reported an open break in relations between China and the Soviet Union became a distinct possibility as round-the-clock denunciations of the U.S.S.R.’s ideological “revisionism” continued outside Moscow’s embassy in Beijing and had begun in front of the Yugoslav embassy in suburban Sanlitum. The U.S. and Canada apologized to Yugoslavia and promised an intensive investigation after coordinated terrorist attacks rocked six of the communist state’s diplomatic missions in North America within an hour. Search our archives for more here.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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