Your forecast
A mix of sun and cloud. High 28 C. Humidex 34. UV index 8 or very high.
What’s happening today
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s major projects and internal trade bill will be voted on today before the House of Commons rises until September.
A closure motion the government passed to limit debate says the House won’t adjourn today until debate wraps up on Bill C-5 and it clears the chamber. The Canadian Press reports.
The “Canada Strong Pass” takes effect Friday, offering free admission to national parks, national historic sites and marine conservation areas maintained by Parks Canada. Read more here.
Visitors explore Cascade Ponds in Banff National Park, Alta., in May. (Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press files)
Today’s must-read
Ciera Pruitt had pictured the scene since she was a little girl running wild on the grounds of Assiniboia Downs — her backyard, really — while her parents were hard at work nearby.
Back then, she was the wide-eyed Winnipeg kid peering over the paddock railing, watching the colourful parade of jockeys from faraway places like Bermuda, Venezuela and Mexico leading majestic thoroughbreds toward the track while the bugle call to the post played over the loudspeakers.
Now, at the age of 22, Pruitt’s time as a sideline spectator was over. She was one of the diminutive figures in the saddle under the bright lights — a rookie jockey ready to take on the racing world. And she was going to relish every single thrilling second of it. Mike McIntyre has the story.
Ciera Pruitt with Explosive on the training track. (Mike Deal / Free Press)
On the bright side
It’s been said if you remember the 1960s, you weren’t really there.
Ditto the Blue Note Café, a late-night live music venue that existed in Winnipeg for almost two decades, originally on Main Street at what is presently Blue Note Park and later on Portage Avenue, near Arlington Street.
Curtis Riddell is the former owner of “the Note,” which became as famous for its cinnamon coffee and exterior neon sign as for the A-list clientele it tended to attract. Since last fall, the 69-year-old grandfather of two has been chronicling his involvement there, via an entertaining Facebook page titled Vague Recollections of the Blue Note Café, “vague” being the key word.
“Heck, I can’t even remember why we decided to call it the Blue Note in the first place,” he laughs, seated in his second-floor apartment in Altona, where he’s been living since 2015. David Sanderson has the story here.
Neil Young (left) at the Note with his first band the Squires, from Winnipeg. (Supplied)
On this date
On June 20, 1978: The Winnipeg Free Press reported two tornadoes hitting southern Manitoba resulted in one death, 23 injuries and massive property damage; a twister pulled a CN Rail bunk car near Ste. Anne into the air and killed the employee inside; the community of Aubigny was particularly hard hit, with three-quarters of its buildings damaged or destroyed. In Montreal, Air Canada pilots were set to strike the coming Monday. Read the rest of this day’s paper here. 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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