Gordon Bell students relish — ‘of all things’ — new pickleball courts

Manitoba’s newest public school sports facility is bringing the pickleball craze to an inner-city campus.

Gordon Bell High School unveiled four custom-made courts for the popular paddle sport this fall as part of a multi-faceted makeover.

Grade 12 student Matea Thiessen Unger called the courts “the cherry on top,” of a multi-year construction project that consumed much of her high school career.

“It was happening for so long — it felt like it was never going to end,” the 16-year-old said.

‘Horrifying’: Focus on Tumbler Ridge shooter’s AI chats

An article published by U.S. magazine Mother Jones this week provides a vivid account of what it says were conversations between the Tumbler Ridge shooter and an OpenAI chatbot.

The report, which does not disclose its sources, has thrown a spotlight on the possible role played by ChatGPT in coaching Jesse Van Rootselaar before the February attack, in which eight victims died, including five pupils at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.

Here's what we know, and how people are reacting.

WHAT DOES THE ARTICLE SAY?

Perfecting profitability

More jaded of investors may roll their eyes at another book offering up a formula for the “perfect portfolio.”

Veteran portfolio manager Peter Lazaroff, based in St. Louis, and host of the Long Term Investor podcast understands the scepticism around his recently published book The Perfect Portfolio: a Proven Guide to Smart Investing for Long-Term Success.

Yet the chief investment officer at Plancorp Wealth Management, which has about US$10.2 billion in assets under management, has a caveat to the notion of the perfect portfolio.

“The perfect portfolio on paper is probably a lot different than the perfect portfolio for you in real life because what’s ‘perfect’ is a formula you can stick with for decades on end.”

An aim to bring everyone together

Imagine a world where people work together to celebrate differences, learn from each other, build empathy and understanding.

A world where connection replaces division and gives every person a place to discover their gifts and strengths, so they can thrive.

That’s exactly what AIM 4 ALL is doing, giving individuals with and without disabilities a space to collaborate and create art as equals on the stage.

The goal of the new musical theatre company is to produce fully inclusive productions and give performance opportunities to their ensemble throughout the training season. By fostering a safe, creative, and diverse environment, AIM 4 ALL empowers participants of all abilities to share their talents and flourish together.

Burger buffs translate patty epiphany into flat-out success

Île-des-Chênes — Who can forget the scene from the 1994 crime film Pulp Fiction where Vincent Vega, played by John Travolta, informs his hitman counterpart Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) that owing to the metric system, people in France refer to a McDonald’s Quarter-Pounder as a “royale with cheese.”

That causes Winnfield to openly wonder what the French term is for a Big Mac.

“Big Mac’s a Big Mac, but they call it ‘le Big Mac,’” Vega responds.

The reason we bring up that cinematic exchange is because this hockey season, the married couple behind Duke’s Burger Co., a hard-to-miss, yellow-and-orange food trailer that from May to August operates along Highway 59 near Niverville, will be in charge of the canteen at Île-des-Chênes Arena, home of the South Eastern Manitoba Hockey League’s Île-des-Chênes North Stars. Given the fact Île-des-Chênes is a historically francophone community, we asked Duke’s owners Josh and Amanda Darlington if there is a French equivalent for smash burgers, their signature dish.

Gillingham outlines big plan for Seine River in a second term as mayor

Scott Gillingham promises to turn the Seine River into a permanent recreation and nature attraction, if re-elected as mayor.

At a riverside campaign announcement Friday, Gillingham said a long-term plan would be to create Rivière-Seine Historic Municipal Riverway encompassing the entire Winnipeg section of the Seine, building on past volunteer efforts to clean up the river and make it a paddle-friendly attraction.

The Seine, which winds through St. Boniface and St. Vital, originates in the Sandilands Provincial Forest, passes through southeastern Manitoba, crosses the Red River Floodway and joins the Red River in St. Boniface just north of The Forks.

“What we want to do, really, is to establish the permanence of this river and allow its beauty and the opportunity to enjoy it, to be something that we don’t just leave to volunteers alone, but come together and focus on establishing it as, really, a place that gets focused attention and investment,” said Gillingham.

Restaurants ‘under pressure’

Happy hour outings are on Jackie Piggott’s calendar — but even those are fewer.

She and her husband might visit a restaurant once a month. It’s a change over the past year: earlier, they might go twice, thrice or weekly.

“It’s something that we’ve talked about, my husband and myself, just because the pricing is so expensive,” Piggott said, stopping during a grocery run in St. Vital. “It’s also better for our health.”

She’s in the majority: a new Restaurants Canada report found 80 per cent of Canadians are eating out less frequently because of higher living costs, up from 75 per cent in 2025.

Positive anticipation is growing about major housing developments underway in Winnipeg’s downtown

If traffic is light and the wind is down, Somia Sadiq is able to hear the roar of Winnipeg Jets fans twice: first through her window, then on TV.

From her apartment view high above downtown, she can look out at Graham Avenue’s painted pedestrian landscape, see construction cranes and hear the heavy equipment at work as massive housing projects take shape at The Forks, at what used to be Portage Place shopping centre and at the former Hudson’s Bay building.

Sadiq has lived at 300 Main for 2 1/2 years, a few steps from the city’s famous, windy and reopened-to-pedestrians Portage Avenue intersection. At 42 storeys, it’s the tallest building in Winnipeg.

She is among 18,000 downtown residents who will soon be joined by thousands of others attracted to the city’s core by the new wave of major construction projects.

Austrian yodelers take their voices underground, turning a parking garage into the Alps

GRAZ, Austria (AP) — No mountains to practice on? No problem. Yodeling fans in Austria have moved their practice sessions to an underground parking garage, since it produces echoes like those they can get in the landscapes of the Alps.

“It’s not too dissimilar to the high mountains," said yodeling teacher Anna Maria Gutschi as she led a group of 30 through an empty parking garage earlier this week. "You have wide hallways; you have walls that reflect a lot.”

Gutschi works for the Styrian Volksliedwerk, a cultural organization promoting traditional folk music in the southeastern Austrian city of Graz — which is not in the high mountains, but sits in a flat basin surrounded by hills and low mountain ranges at the edge of the Alps.

The group has been holding a series of courses on yodeling in unusual places to keep the tradition alive in modern times. Whether it is an underground car park, a canal or a gas station — as long as the acoustics work, up to 30 people are allowed to join each time for a unique experience.

Global prediction markets, local presence

Winnipeg’s mayoral race has reached a new platform: illegal online betting.

Incumbent Scott Gillingham took the lead on U.S.-based Polymarket on Thursday afternoon. Some $15,335 had been invested in his win (from 54 per cent of bettors).

Gillingham also led on Kalshi, another U.S. prediction market. Half of bettors were banking on his victory (a ‘yes’ share was 60 cents at the time).

Kevin Klein trailed in second place in both Polymarket and Kalshi contracts; Mazher Alam had garnered $2,256 and third place on Polymarket; Don Woodstock claimed third place on Kalshi by 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Concrete doc befits brutalist Winnipeg

Moviegoers across North America are pounding the pavement and lining up around the block to see The History of Concrete, small-screen documentarian John Wilson’s feature-length debut.

More than 60,000 Manitobans rely on food bank each month, Harvest Manitoba report says

Linda Smith first turned to Harvest Manitoba in the early 1990s when her husband became permanently disabled. Now, on a fixed income, she continues to access the food bank to make ends meet.

Smith is one of more than 60,000 Manitobans now relying on food banks each month as demand continues to grow, a new report by Harvest Manitoba reveals.

The organization said in its 2025-26 impact report, released Thursday, that 61,188 people accessed a food bank in the province in March. Nearly half of them were children. The number of people accessing food banks in the province since 2020 has ballooned by more than 150 per cent, including more seniors, like Smith, than ever before.

Smith, a mother of five now in her 70s, first went to Harvest Manitoba in 1991 when he husband was disabled, and then again in the mid 2000s following a major car accident that led to a brain stem injury that forced her out of the workforce.

Fire up the grills! Thousands of South Africans try to set a record for the biggest cookout

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Armed with their tongs and sausages, thousands of determined — and hungry — South Africans gathered on a national holiday Thursday to attempt to break the world record for the biggest cookout.

The record to beat for most people grilling simultaneously was 2,220, set in Japan's Ishigaki City in 2023.

The South African hopefuls, who were denied in a failed attempt last year, poured into a sports stadium in the capital, Pretoria, to take up their positions around 500 grilling stations. Organizers said they expected around 3,000 participants.

The strict rules, according to a Guinness World Records adjudicator who watched over the attempt, were: Everyone needs to be barbecuing simultaneously for a minimum of five minutes to be counted.

Winnipegger’s attic boutique bucks fast-fashion habits

While most of us are likely to chuck on a hoodie and sweatpants for a last-minute dash to the store, Tara Cole-McCaffrey’s early morning run to pick up a carton of milk probably involves sequins, biker boots or a frilly maxi dress — or all three.

It’s a fitting look for someone who owns her own by-appointment-only vintage showroom, Patron of Dreams. But she’s not dressed up deliberately; Cole-McCaffrey just grabbed whatever she could find by her bed before heading out.

“I wear what I own; I don’t have basics,” says Cole-McCaffrey, 48. “If I had sweats and a wrinkled T-shirt sitting on the floor, that’s what I would have put on, because it was convenience I was looking for.

“But if you buy clothes that are fun and interesting, that is what becomes convenient, because that’s what’s in your closet.”

‘Extremely disappointed’: hunters being turned away near Bloodvein First Nation, Manitoba Wildlife Federation says

The Manitoba Wildlife Federation says hunters are again being refused access to land near Bloodvein River First Nation, a year after leadership told court it would let them through.

City of Ottawa to rename Trump Avenue as trade war continues

OTTAWA - A residential street in Ottawa bearing the last name of U.S. President Donald Trump will be given a new monniker after the city council voted in favour of a motion to start the renaming process.

Coun. Riley Brockington introduced a motion that was carried Wednesday to rename Trump Avenue, in Ottawa's Central Park neighbourhood.

The area, just southwest of the city's core, was developed in the 1990s and 2000s with a New York City theme, and multiple streets pay homage to the city with names like Central Park Drive, Staten Way and Grammercy Park.

"Since I came to office, there have been a number of requests from Trump Avenue residents, residents within Central Park and across our city and frankly beyond that would like to see the City of Ottawa engage in a street renaming process," he said Wednesday.

13 federal departments, agencies spending more than $18 million on return-to-office

OTTAWA - Federal government departments and agencies are set to spend more than $18 million to get their employees to work in the office more often.

Thousands of federal public servants started a new work schedule in July requiring them to be on-site in the office four days a week. Executive public servants returned to the office full-time in May.

In response to an order paper question from NDP MP Heather McPherson, 13 federal organizations said they plan to spend a combined $18,720,150 to reconfigure or acquire office space to accommodate the increased frequency of in-person work.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada said it will spend almost $5.7 million, while Fisheries and Oceans Canada said it will spend $4.2 million.

Manitoba students able to opt out of classes with sensitive lessons on sex, drug use

Manitoba’s premier pledges to continue allowing parents to pull their kids from health class if content — be it related to human sexuality, substance use or otherwise — clashes with personal beliefs.

Wab Kinew said Tuesday the government’s overhaul of phys-ed and health curriculum in Manitoba schools won’t impact the ability for parents to opt-out of a lesson and deliver material as they see fit.

“As a parent, you are your child’s first and most important teacher and that will always be the case,” Kinew said, surrounded by hundreds of teenagers on the football field outside Kelvin High School during an announcement Tuesday.

More than 100 schools are taking part in a voluntary pilot project this fall. It’s the first systematic review of this curriculum in decades. The changes to kindergarten-to-Grade 12 courses will be mandated to all schools in September 2028.

CMU instructor uses camper audio studio to capture stories of human connection in a time of isolation, alienation

GRUNTHAL — Last Sunday, David Balzer parked his vintage 1978 Triple E Surfside camper trailer on a church lot in town and, like an itinerant priest with a mobile confessional, prepared to hear people’s stories.

It was a crisp sunny morning. Inside the trailer were a pair of yellow mugs that matched the trailer’s egg yolk trim. On a table were two microphones.

Outside the trailer stood a sandwich board with an invitation: “Step in.”

Balzer doesn’t actually hear confessions, but he does perform what some might consider a priestly duty: helping people share their stories.

Woman who fled abuse decries lack of consequences for landlord who breached lease-breaking confidentiality

The provincial government is being asked to penalize landlords who breach the confidentiality of tenants breaking a lease to flee domestic violence after a survivor discovered there’s no consequences now.

“It put me in a very difficult situation,” said the woman, who was stunned to see that her landlord copied her abuser in email correspondence, including the domestic violence certificate she obtained to end a tenancy agreement early and leave an abusive relationship.

“My heart dropped to my stomach — I was in disbelief,” she said, recalling the confidentiality breach that occurred in 2025.

“I’m very lucky to be in a situation where it’s no longer a threat to my immediate safety.”

Buy Canadian scanner apps have exploded online. How do you know which one is right?

One app tells you a bottle of Heinz tomato ketchup is prepared in Canada, another deems it partially Canadian, while a third calls it "not Canadian-owned."

For consumers scouring the grocery store for Canadian-made food items after the latest eruption of U.S. tariffs, it can be difficult to discern which products are truly Canadian and which aren't.

Multiple apps sprang up promising to help shoppers buy Canadian-made products after trade tensions with the United States broke out last year.

Users typically scan an item's bar code or logo, which then produces results on how Canadian the item is. But each app has its own methodology, making apples-to-apples comparison difficult, and the level of detail varies.

Who will vote for trees?

In July 2026, Terrasse-Vaudreuil, a small Quebec town, made international headlines.

And no, it wasn’t the result of murder and mayhem or a catastrophic flood. The headlines were about a remarkable resolution passed by its town council, making Terrasse-Vaudreuil the first city in the world to recognize the rights of trees.