The Wrap: Court staff shortages, MPI changes, parental rights, squash championship and a new album from Al Simmons

A shortage of clerks in the provincial court system is beginning to cause delays in proceedings, raising concerns about the administration of justice in Manitoba.

If nothing is done to address the shortage, the courts won’t be able to function, those involved in the justice system warn.

Manitoba Public Insurance will announce a new CEO and president next week.

That person will be tasked with implementing the recommendations of a government-ordered organizational review that was released Friday and found MPI’s management structure lacks accountability and stability.

The report determined MPI has a “less than optimal” ratio of managers to direct reports, and found executive staff do not have key objectives or measures of success in their roles. Meanwhile, key performance indicators for the corporation either do not exist, are not actively monitored, or a not acted upon.

Emails obtained by the Free Press through a freedom of information request show that three months before the provincial election, Manitoba’s department of education conducted a jurisdictional scan of parents’ “right to know” about their child’s preferred names and pronouns in other provinces.

It’s unclear if anyone at the political level was involved in the request, but political observers say the Tories may have been seeking justification to eventually raise “parental rights” — something critics call a dog whistle for policies that harm LGBTTQ+ students — on the campaign trail.

The Canadian Masters Squash Championship started today at the Winnipeg Winter Club.

Manitoba hasn’t won the event since it expanded from the Western Canadian Championship in 2009, but the province is courting two teams this weekend, one of which (Manitoba 1) now boasts four former national champions.

Joshua Frey-Sam talks to some top-rated players.

Al Simmons is 75 and has a pacemaker, but the children’s entertainer and member of the Order of Manitoba has the same boundless energy as the youngsters that populate his audiences.

In The Whistling Egg Man and Other Tall Tales, his first new album in more than 25 years, Simmons travels north to Hudson Bay to rap about polar bears and south to the Gulf of Mexico to teach about the oral hygiene of alligators.