Your forecast
A mix of sun and cloud, becoming sunny this morning. High 26 C. Humidex 27. UV index 4 or moderate.
What’s happening today
At McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location at 7 p.m., award-winning poet and novelist katherena vermette launches her latest collection of poems, Procession.
Vermette won the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry in 2013 for her collection North End Love Songs. In Procession, she explores notions of nostalgia, ceremony, ancestry, family and more.
katherena vermette (Mike Deal / Free Press files)
Today’s must-read
Premier Wab Kinew defended his embattled families minister Wednesday, declaring Nahanni Fontaine a strong leader who is the victim of gender-based violence and racism following a fire at her constituency office over the weekend.
Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan took aim at Fontaine on the first day of the fall legislative session, calling for the premier to remove her from cabinet for reposting controversial comments last month saying she had no empathy for assassinated U.S. conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
Khan tabled 450 emails in the chamber from Manitobans calling for Fontaine’s removal while 50 demonstrators gathered in front of the legislative building demanding her ouster from cabinet.
Nearly 50 counter-protesters were in attendance. They blared sirens, beat drums and chanted “Who do we support — Nahanni,” over speeches at the rally. Police were in attendance but the protests were peaceful. Carol Sanders has the story.
Nahanni Fontaine, minister of Families, takes her seat in the assembly chamber on the first day of the fall session of the 43rd legislature on Wednesday. (Mike Deal / Free Press)
On the bright side
Manitoba Harvest is celebrating a $500,000 donation, which it hopes will help lay the foundation for a new food processing facility to accommodate an increasing number of people who rely on the food bank.
“It’s a transformational gift,” Vince Barletta, the non-profit’s president and CEO, said of the donation from Farm Credit Canada.
Manitoba Harvest provides food for more than 100,000 people each month, including individuals, families and children supported through school lunch programs. Food-bank usage in the province has risen by more than 150 per cent since 2020 — a rate of growth that “far outpaces the national average,” according to the organization’s most recent impact report, released last week. Tyler Searle has more here.
Harvest Manitoba president and CEO Vince Barletta (right) with Farm Credit Canada vice-president Barry Watson (Mike Deal / Free Press)
On this date
On Oct. 2, 1961: The Winnipeg Free Press reported in Ottawa, a $9-million slum clearance program for Winnipeg, taking in 116 acres bounded by Main Street, Selkirk Avenue and Salter Street, was approved by the federal government. The United States and the Soviet Union were inching closer to agreement in negotiations that could lead to a compromise settlement of the Berlin crisis. Baseball greats Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle would be special Free Press correspondents at the World Series. 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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