Your forecast
Cloudy with a 30 per cent chance of showers. Wind from the north at 40 km/h gusting to 60 becoming northwest 20 late this afternoon. High 7 C. UV index 1 or low.
What’s happening today
After publishing four critically acclaimed books of poetry, Laotian-Canadian author Souvankham Thammavongsa’s debut short-fiction collection, 2020’s How To Pronounce Knife, wowed readers and critics, winning the $20,000 Trillium Book Award and the $100,000 Giller Prize.
The Toronto-based Thammavongsa’s debut novel, Pick a Colour, published Sept. 30 by Knopf Canada, is a slim but immersive novel about a former boxer turned nail salon owner, and her employees and clients, that takes place over the course of one business day.
Thammavongsa launches Pick a Colour tonight at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location, where she’ll be joined in conversation by Lindsay Wong, author of The Woo Woo. Ben Sigurdson has a preview here.
Souvankham Thammavongsa took boxing lessons while researching her novel. (Steph Martyniuk photo)
Today’s must-read
Mounties have arrested and charged three men in the slaying of a Tootinaowaziibeeng Treaty Reserve mother who vanished more than five years ago.
Melinda Lynxleg’s case highlights the prevalence of gender-based violence against Indigenous people in Manitoba, which has been called the national epicentre for such crimes.
“My sister Melinda did not deserve what happened to her,” Allison Lynxleg told the Free Press in a message before a news conference at RCMP Winnipeg headquarters Monday afternoon. Tyler Searle has the story.
Melinda Lynxleg (Supplied)
On the bright side
The number of North Atlantic right whales is not growing as fast as scientists would like, but new figures released Tuesday show that the population of the endangered species is showing signs of recovery after years of dramatic declines.
A whale conservation group says the estimated population of North Atlantic right whales in 2024 was 384, a rise of 2.1 per cent over the estimate of 376 in 2023.
“It’s slow, but we’ll take slow growth over decline any day,” Heather Pettis with the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium said in an interview. The Canadian Press has more here.
A North Atlantic right whale feeds on the surface of Cape Cod Bay off the coast of Plymouth, Mass., in 2018. (Michael Dwyer / The Associated Press files)
On this date
On Oct. 21, 1933: The Winnipeg Free Press reported Manitoba premier R.B. Bennett was headed to Ottawa to meet with the prime minister after hearing from delegations of wheat-growers. The first snowfall of the season blanketed Winnipeg and parts of Manitoba, and local unemployment rates were declining.
The first daily column from long-running local advice columnist Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson was published on this date. Her return to print was heralded with a front-page announcement that predicted her daily advice would be “welcomed by thousands who sought her advice in the past and by other thousands who will turn to her for comfort and solace in the future.”
The common expression “a bull in a china shop” came to life in Norfolk, England while the Queen Mary was standing in the fine china department of a shop when a young bull charged in from the busy street outside. The queen and a princess reportedly “remained unperturbed and apparently enjoyed the incident.”
Read the rest of this day’s paper here. Search our archives for more here.
Today’s front page
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