Thousands mark Truth and Reconcilation Day

As a sea of thousands clad in orange waited, Helen George braids her son’s long, straight hair.

They’re at the RBC Convention Centre, preparing for the grand entry ceremonies hosted by the Southern Chiefs’ Organization to mark the fifth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Tuesday afternoon.

Originally from Ochapowace Cree Nation in Saskatchewan but living in Winnipeg, George is helping her son, Houston, get dressed for the upcoming powwow. For her, seeing so many families coming together to recognize the impact of the residential school system and celebrate Indigenous resilience is touching.

“It’s meaningful,” she said.

Ski jumper Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes takes to the air again for Canada

CALGARY - Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes has returned to ski jumping after a hiatus of two and a half years.

Boyd-Clowes laid down Canada's final jump of the mixed team event at the 2022 Winter Games for bronze and the country's first ever Olympic medal in the sport.

The four-time Olympian is back in the air again. Boyd-Clowes competed in a pair of September competitions and provisionally qualified for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy.

"It's new and fresh and exciting. I took a long break and wasn't sure whether I would jump again and now I'm doing it," Boyd-Clowes said.

Walk across Manitoba raises funds for first responders dealing with mental health issues

Andrew Cherkas deals with his mental health struggles one step at a time.

The 43-year-old firefighter lives with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the tragedies he’s witnessed on the job and contemplated suicide in 2021.

Since then, medication and therapy have helped him get to a better place. The daily walks he takes with his dog, Charlie, along the trails near his home south of Portage la Prairie, are also healing. No headphones, no music — just Cherkas, Charlie and the outdoors.

Last spring, Cherkas came up with an idea to raise awareness and funds for first responders struggling with mental health issues. He launched Steppin’ in Support for 1977 earlier this month with the goal of walking across Manitoba while inviting people to donate to the Preston Heinbigner Memorial Fund.

Police investigating fires, vandalism at NDP cabinet ministers’ North End constituency offices

Broken windows, four blazes started in two months

Winnipegger’s artwork chosen for Walmart’s national Orange Shirt offering

As she walked into the Unicity Walmart department store, Indigenous artist Brooklyn Rudolph-Nicholas felt her excitement levels rising.

She headed towards the racks of instantly recognizable orange T-shirts, smiling as she glimpsed the familiar image on the front.

It was a pinch-me moment: her work was emblazoned on Walmart Canada’s National Day for Truth & Reconciliation orange shirts stocked in stores across the country.

The granddaughter of two residential school survivors, Rudolph-Nicholas made her T-shirt art in honour of her late grandparents.

Winnipeg Jets fan support ‘like none other’

It was a vivid — and very noisy — reminder of just how hockey-crazed this community can be.

A dreary, rainy Saturday didn’t stop roughly 5,000 fans from packing into Hockey For All Centre to watch the Winnipeg Jets go through their training camp paces.

“It’s awesome. It just shows how great the support is, how great the community is,” said rookie skater Colby Barlow.

The 20-year-old from Ontario, selected 18th overall by the Jets in 2023, drew one of the loudest ovations when he buried a wicked one-timer off a Parker Ford feed to open the scoring during a scrimmage, which was the main attraction of the team’s annual Fan Fest.

Small changes, big impact

Are you a climate champion or climate destroyer? Ecological quizzes and carbon-footprint calculators can help you find out.

Reimagining the garden

Next week, close to 100 horticultural professionals from botanical gardens and conservatories across Canada and the U.S. will be in Winnipeg for the American Public Gardens Association’s 2025 Horticulture, Greenhouse, & Facilities Symposium, which will be hosted by Assiniboine Park Conservancy at The Leaf.

St. Boniface residents drained after demolition of Happyland pool

As demolition continues at one outdoor pool in St. Boniface, a city councillor hopes to take a second look at extending the life of another one.

‘You gave him purpose… gave him his freedom’: grateful mother from Colombia celebrates Sunshine Fund

Freedom for the Recio family, in their native Colombia, was tied to an unexpected emblem.

“Our children watched The Parent Trap at least 50 times, dreaming of canoes and lakes and cabins in the woods,” Angela Recio told a crowded room at the Caboto Centre on Thursday.

“But in Colombia, where we lived in South America, that kind of freedom was unimaginable. Sending our child off into the wilderness was not just unthinkable, it was unsafe.”

Recio was addressing donors, nature lovers, Manitoba Camping Association staff and friends at the organization’s appreciation luncheon for supporters of its Sunshine Fund.

Bus riders, drivers welcome police safety initiative; two arrests made on day plan rolled out

The announcement of a new police strategy — placing both uniformed and plainclothes officers on Winnipeg Transit — was welcome news for riders Friday.

The Winnipeg Police Service announced the initiative’s first arrests were made on Wednesday, when the plan was unveiled.

“I love it,” said one elderly woman who was waiting for her bus at Unicity. “I love it for the bus drivers as well, because they take the brunt of it.”

She said she had already noticed more police nearby, pointing out that she saw multiple cruisers pull into the parking lot while she ate breakfast at a nearby Burger King.

Artists, performers open their doors, and their souls, for Culture Days

Culture Days, a national celebration of local arts and culture, kicks off today and runs through Oct. 12.

There are hundreds of free public events taking place across Manitoba over the next three weeks, including in Winnipeg, Morden, Gimli, Flin Flon and beyond. Nuit Blanche Winnipeg, the city’s annual late-night art party, also falls under the Culture Days umbrella and takes place Sept. 27.

Find a sample of the fun below and visit culturedays.ca for more information.

Central Park Moves: Weekend BeatsCentral Park, 367 Ellice Ave.

Read and research, before engaging your rage

It looked like Liberal arrogance of the first degree, deliberately blowing off a meeting of a major Parliamentary committee.

Conservative MP Larry Brock on X: “UNBELIEVABLE. Parliament is back, but Liberal members of the Justice Committee are MISSING IN ACTION. Crime is out of control, Canadians are terrified, but Conservatives are ready to restore safety to our streets.”

Ditto, Conservative MP Roman Babar: “It’s 3:30 pm on a Tuesday. The Standing Committee on Justice is supposed to be meeting right now. Crime is out of control and justice reform is desperately needed. The Committee’s Conservative members are ready to work, but Liberal members refuse to show up. Unbelievable!”

You get the point. Problem is, there was no meeting. No staff. No translators. Just four Conservative MPs.

Bidding an unfond farewell to the fitness test

Goodbye — and good riddance.

A new collective bargaining agreement means a long-standing pre-season ritual — timed sprint skates, measured jumps, weight-lifting contests and lung-capacity tests — is about to become a thing of the past. This September marks the final round of fitness testing, a development that Winnipeg Jets centre Mark Scheifele nearly commemorated with a T-shirt on Wednesday.

So why was this such a sore spot for players?

“I think it stems from last year and a lot of injuries coming in the pre-season, a lot of marquee guys around the league,” said Jets winger Kyle Connor.

Discovering public art by chance

A few weeks ago, on a bike ride through St. Boniface with my wife, we veered off the familiar path and stumbled upon something unexpected.

When self-doubt creeps in at work, pause and reframe your negative thoughts. Here’s how

NEW YORK (AP) — When we make mistakes at work, it can lead to a cycle of negative thinking.

The damaging thoughts swirl: “I’m an impostor.” “I’m not smart enough.” “I’m failing at my job.”

Feeling like an impostor — doubting one’s own abilities despite a track record of success — is common, especially among women and members of marginalized groups. Even on days when everything’s going right, it can be hard to shift out of a cycle of self-doubt.

But there are ways to interrupt that downward spiral.

Drunk driver who killed woman in 2022 hit-and-run denied parole

The man who killed a 24-year-old woman while driving drunk in a high-speed hit-and-run collision in Transcona in 2022 was denied parole Wednesday.

In November 2023, Tyler Scott Goodman was sentenced to seven years in prison — six for impaired driving causing death and one for leaving the scene — for the collision that killed Jordyn Reimer on May 1, 2022, sparking outrage from loved ones who argued the sentence was too low.

The Wednesday hearing, at Stony Mountain prison, was to assess whether Goodman could be deemed a manageable risk if granted day or full parole.

Parole Board of Canada member Lesley Monkman said he wasn’t ready for either.

We all live in glass houses now

In the 19th century, stocks and pillories were still in use in Canada, with people put on public display, their necks, hands or feet clamped into hinged wooden frames for a few hours as punishment for crimes like public drunkenness or disorder, theft and perjury.

Better protection needed for urban trees

While you might have stopped and thought about the poetry of the trees that are a constant in the city of Winnipeg — big and small, sometimes healthy and other times failing, you probably haven’t thought about the value of a tree.

Homemade Cooking School: Squash your aversion to veggies

In this Homemade Cooking School class, Camille Metcalfe shares how to make the most of produce.

The big meaning behind micro-relationships, and why we should talk to strangers more

VANCOUVER - Psychology Prof. Gillian Sandstrom was a lonely graduate student in Toronto when she began what she calls "a tiny, tiny micro-relationship."

She and a woman who ran a hotdog stand on her way to university around 2007 would wave hello and smile at each other. Their interactions were so small that Sandstrom uses air quotes to even describe them as a "relationship."

And yet "it really meant something much bigger than it seemed like it should, and it made me feel like I belonged there," said Sandstrom.

"I felt very out of place and she, more than anyone else, is who made me feel OK, which was a bit puzzling."