The Wrap: Youth crime, parental rights, Sabre restoration, PTE’s season and a paratriathlete headed to Paris

People who work in the child-welfare system say Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth’s comments Thursday calling out the failures of the system meant to protect kids in care were “shocking” — but a jolt that Manitobans needed to hear.

Children involved in the child-welfare system are often impacted by unstable upbringings, untreated trauma, frequent placement changes, and a general lack of adequate supports, advocates told the Free Press.

The police chief described a spate of attacks involving youths “indiscriminately” wielding machetes, noting the underage suspects were living in group or foster homes.

The recent string of attacks has also renewed discussions about how to keep machetes out of the wrong hands.

The “parental rights movement” encompasses a spectrum of views on topics ranging from the use of gender-neutral pronouns in schools to drag-queen storytimes.

Some activists — usually radically conservative groups whose self-proclaimed mandate is to protect “faith, family and freedom” — have been ramping up their advocacy efforts locally.

Education reporter Maggie Macintosh investigates this hot-button topic.

Volunteers with the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada are restoring a Canadair Sabre fighter jet, which was the backbone of the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Cold War decades of the 1950s and ’60s.

The aircraft was the last off the assembly line in Montreal in 1958, the 1,815th Sabre built. It hasn’t flown in decades, and much of its aluminum skin has corroded after being left outside for several years before it was donated to the museum.

Volunteers expect to spend 4,000 hours cleaning old parts, fabricating new ones, returning it to its original green and grey colours.

Photojournalist Mikaela MacKenzie dropped in to see the work in progress.

Five Canadian productions, four of them world premières, are coming to Prairie Theatre Exchange’s stages next season, the company announced Thursday.

The slate of programming represents steady support of the theatre’s mandate for new local, Canadian and Indigenous works.

This comes as the company continues to experience post-pandemic challenges while attempting — like most performing arts groups — to regain and maintain its subscription base.

Leanne Taylor is dominating the race she never planned to start.

The 31-year-old Manitoban recorded her first career international victory at the Americas Paratriathlon Championship in Miami, Fla., in early March, securing a spot in the Paris Paralympics this summer — six years after a cycling crash changed her life.

“When I was injured… one of the things that I had said is that, ‘I (want) to make a life that (is) so good that when I think about my injury, it’s not this horrendous tragedy, it’s just something that happened,’” she told sports reporter Joshua Frey-Sam.

“At this point, it’s been almost six years — even when I reached the five-year mark, I could definitely say that I accomplished that.”