Your forecast
A mix of sun and cloud with a risk of a thunderstorm this afternoon. Expected high is 30 C with a low of 18, a humidex of 34, and a UV index of 8 or very high.
What’s happening today
Today is the first day of Pride month, a celebration of LGBTTQ+ liberation, survival and expression. There are many events taking place, including the Edge Gallery and Urban Art Centre, which will celebrate Pride Week in Winnipeg by featuring works by Manitoba LGBTTQ+ ceramic artists, as well as painters, printmakers and sculptors. And while the provincial government has announced $250,000 in annual operating funding for Pride Winnipeg and a new gender equity secretariat to update, expand and rename the Manitoba Status of Women Secretariat to better co-ordinate services for the LGBTTQ+ community, the Progressive Conservatives are rejecting calls from the NDP to compel all MLAs to participate in Pride parades. The announced funding will allow Pride Winnipeg to spearhead a new Manitoba Pride Collective.
About 80,000 people attended last year’s Pride festival at The Forks. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files)
In Quebec, the province’s language law reform, commonly referred to as Bill 96, is continuing to draw criticism and legal challenges from the province’s English community as more of its provisions come into effect today, exactly a year after it received royal assent. The Canadian Press reports.
People take part in a protest against Bill 96 in Montreal, in 2022. (Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press files)
Today’s must-read
Students who were on a field trip to Fort Gibraltar heard a cracking noise moments before a platform collapsed and sent about 30 people, mostly children, falling four to six metres Wednesday morning.
Officials said 17 children and one adult from St. John’s-Ravenscourt School suffered varying degrees of injury and were taken to the Health Sciences Centre, which declared a “code orange” — a disaster occurring outside the hospital. Chris Kitching and Maggie Macintosh have the story.
The platform that collapsed at Fort Gibraltar. (David Lipnowski / Winnipeg Free Press)
On the bright side
In New York, the special Tony Award that honours educators will go this year to Jason Zembuch-Young, a drama teacher in Florida who has closed the gap between the deaf and hearing worlds by having productions performed in both voice and American Sign Language. The Associated Press reports.
Jason Zembuch-Young, artistic director of the public South Plantation High School, in Plantation, Fla. (Rick Armstrong via The Associated Press)
On this date
On June 1, 1950: The Winnipeg Free Press reported U.S. president Harry Truman appealed to Congress for more arms-aid money for free nations to forestall Soviet aggression and expansion. In Winnipeg, work of the newly-appointed restoration committee of the Manitoba Flood Relief fund began, with decisions on distributing money to repair or replace essential clothing, household furnishings and other goods, with priority given to the most needy and destitute. Donations to the fund had reached $2,860,000. In Ottawa, the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation announced it would pay flood repair bills for homes it owned in Manitoba. 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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