Le destin renversé du 261 rue Youville

À défaut d’obtenir des excuses officielles de la part du gouvernement pour la loi Thornton de 1916, ou même l’ensemble des lois et politiques assimilatrices qui ont été en vigueur dans la province pendant des décennies, les jeunes franco-manitobains qui ont posé sur papier leur interrogation dans notre édition du 11 au 17 mars 2026 souriront peut-être à la lecture de ce papier.

L’on apprenait au début du mois de mars 2026 que la Division scolaire franco-manitobaine ouvrirait sa 26e école à Saint-Boniface.

Au 261 rue Youville, ce sont les murs de l’école confessionnelle Springs Christian Academy qui appartiennent désormais à la DSFM.

En réalité, l’établissement est l’un des plus anciens bâtiments scolaires publics de Saint-Boniface. Fermé en 1989 en raison d’une baisse du nombre d’inscriptions, elle n’a rouvert ses portes sous le nom de Springs Christian Academy qu’en 1991.

Northern trade corridor top of mind as Manitoba premier plans meeting with PM

WINNIPEG - Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is planning to go to Ottawa next week for a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Kinew says it's part of a plan the two men have to meet roughly every three months, primarily to discuss the possibility of a northern trade corridor through the Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay.

The project recently made a list of projects being considered as “transformative” by the federal government.

Studies are underway to gauge private-sector interest and examine the use of icebreakers to extend the port's short shipping season.

Hand-drawn 1884 map captures Winnipeg at moment when frontier hadn’t fully given way to a metropolis

At first glance, the map is still. Ink on paper, streets drawn neatly in place, buildings rendered by a careful hand. Look more closely and it begins to loosen. Step into the image, between the lines, and immerse yourself in a city of movement.

Liberals set to debate age restrictions for social media

MONTREAL - Liberal party members will soon grapple with the question of whether children and young teens should be barred from accessing social media accounts for platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and YouTube.

The policy resolution is expected to hit the floor at the Liberal party policy convention in Montreal for debate and a vote on Saturday.

Jonathan Nuss, the head of the Outremont Liberal riding association, is one of the main proponents of a resolution calling on the party to ensure social media platforms limit user accounts to Canadians aged 16 and older.

The Montreal lawyer and father of two young children said he wants this resolution to kick-start a national debate on addictive technologies and the harmful effects social media can have on young children — a debate that's already happening among parents across the country.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip says ‘heartsick’ MLA wife doesn’t support DRIPA pause

VANCOUVER - A First Nations leader whose wife is a B.C. government legislator says she doesn't support Premier David Eby's plan to suspend parts of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, and is "heartsick" over the issue.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, who was among B.C. Indigenous leaders who condemned the suspension plan at a Vancouver news conference on Friday, said Eby has "sidelined" his caucus during DRIPA negotiations and the NDP has a "leadership issue."

He said that when the B.C. legislature unanimously passed DRIPA in 2019, the government seemed committed to reconciliation with First Nations.

"Since that time, regrettably, under the leadership of Premier David Eby, the province has steadily backtracked on those commitments," he said.

Survey reveals widespread support in province for LGBTTQ+ community’s rights

More than seven out of 10 Manitobans believe the rights of people in the province’s LGBTTQ+ community should be protected by law, new poll results reveal.

Fireworks crackdown might be in Winnipeg’s future

A plan to crack down on some fireworks displays could be considered next year, amid concerns that many are done illegally.

“There are more fireworks complaints than permits issued for fireworks, leading to an understanding that many fireworks that generate complaints are set off illegally,” writes Lisa Gilmour, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service’s assistant chief of community risk reduction, in a new report.

WFPS received 306 calls about fireworks last year, while 144 consumer and professional permits were approved to set them off.

In Winnipeg, people who set off fireworks without a permit can presently be fined up to $500. To legally use fireworks, individuals must obtain the permit, be at least 18 years old and set off the devices at least 100 feet (30 metres) away from all buildings and trees.

Manitoba small-business owners post second-highest rate of concern about rising crime

When Fiona Zhao thinks about the rising cost of safety when running her business, it’s not just dollars and cents — to her, it’s a societal issue.

Zhao began Unique Bunny in 2014 in Winnipeg, an early adopter of South Korean and Japanese skincare retail in the city, before expanding to 10 locations around the country. But Unique Bunny’s longest-running Winnipeg storefront, on Osborne Street, closed after eight years in 2023, with the company citing crime growing out of control in the area.

Data released by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business on Wednesday found 61 per cent of surveyed business owners in Manitoba believe crime in their respective communities has increased over the past year — the second-highest rate in the country.

The news doesn’t surprise Zhao.

Motorboats to return to Clear Lake this summer

Motorboats will be allowed to return to Clear Lake this summer, a year after they were banned amid the discovery of invasive species.

Parks Canada officials said Wednesday watercraft inside the Riding Mountain National Park lake would be permitted under a mandatory tagging program and several other conditions.

“We’re pleased, but we also want to see how it will be implemented,” said Trevor Boquist, spokesperson for the Fairness for Clear Lake advocacy group.

“I would say we want to be part of the conversation of how this will be implemented.”

Desperate Manitoba First Nation chief pleads for help after string of recent suicides in devastated community

The chief of a northern Manitoba First Nation has declared a state of emergency as the community grapples with a worsening suicide crisis that has claimed five lives in six months, including three in the past two weeks.

A project to save rural synagogues grows from Maine to Montana

WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) — Rabbi Rachel Isaacs spent the days leading up to Passover overseeing the preparation of ceremonial foods at Beth Israel Congregation, a synagogue in central Maine where membership has quadrupled over the last 15 years.

These days, growing congregations is very much on Isaacs' mind, as she's leading a movement to strengthen rural synagogues and Jewish communities around the country. They've reached dozens, and they're hoping for many more.

“Rural Jewish life is important for the Jewish people and it’s important for rural America,” Isaacs said. “Those people deserve to be served and shepherded.”

Isaacs is executive director of the Center for Small Town Jewish Life at Colby College, a liberal arts school in Waterville, Maine. The center began a decade ago with a goal of supporting Jewish congregations that are far from big cities and it has grown to run programs for more than 60 communities in 22 states.

Indigenous women’s groups call for funding to limit risks to safety, prosperity

OTTAWA - Advocates are calling for long-term, stable federal funding to safeguard Indigenous women and girls and warning the federal government's major projects push could place them at higher risk.

Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, president of the National Family and Survivors Circle, said groups like hers still don't know if they'll receive continued funding from Ottawa. She said that uncertainty undermines their efforts to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

"When we're looking at the safety and human security of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit and gender-diverse people, it's really critical that organizations who are doing this important work — and even through the lens of prevention and economic participation — that they receive long-term, sustainable and equitable funding," she said.

"They're severely underfunded. There's a real power imbalance."

Food is food regardless of where it comes from

In the recent budget, the government of Manitoba announced it will remove provincial sales tax from prepared meals sold in grocery stores, while continuing to apply it to the very same meals sold in restaurants.

This change is presented as an affordability measure. However, if the goal is to make food more affordable, then tax policy should reflect a simple principle: food is food.

Food is not a luxury, it is a necessity.

With just one per cent of restaurants classified as high-end or luxury dining, the reality is that the vast majority operate in the mid-market — serving as an essential part of Manitobans’ daily routines and busy lives. In fact, low-income Canadians spend a greater proportion of their income on restaurants than those with a higher income, so a tax on restaurant food disproportionately affects them.

Karoline Leavitt puts the ‘pro’ in propaganda

It’s not often a press secretary is so rabidly enthusiastic about their mission that they develop their own following, but then Karoline Leavitt is exceptional.

Home gardeners have new way to share bumper crops

Planning a prolific pumpkin patch? A new free online resource lets Winnipeggers list vegetables they’re planning to grow this summer that they will either sell, barter or give away in the fall.

Feds, city, province join forces with First Nation to build 150 apartments in St. James

More than a century after its lake became the source of Winnipeg’s drinking water, Shoal Lake 40 First Nation is leading a major housing development in the city, backed by more than $51 million in government funding.

The federal government announced the combined funding Tuesday to build 150 apartment units at 2675 Portage Ave. in the city’s St. James neighbourhood. The development will include one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

Shoal Lake 40 Chief Herb Greene said the project carries historical significance.

“This development is about three things: history, teamwork, and the future,” Greene said during a sod-turning ceremony Tuesday. He noted for more than 100 years, Winnipeg was in dire need of a reliable source of clean drinking water.

Energy-hungry Nova Scotia companies nearly doubled their solar power capacity in 2025

HALIFAX - Energy-hungry companies in Nova Scotia are heading toward the light.

New statistics from the province's private power utility show that commercial-scale players — which includes municipalities and First Nations — grew their capacity to generate solar energy by 82 per cent last year.

Energy consultant David Brushett says that’s partly because legislative changes a few years ago have allowed companies to install solar systems 10 times larger than before. The “net-metering” system gives firms a credit on their power bills for the electricity they generate, offsetting their own usage. Even with the new rules, they are not allowed to generate more power than their operations consume.

The program allows solar projects of up to one megawatt for commercial customers. Brushett says that size makes more financial sense. “So that allowed much larger installations,” Brushett said in an interview.

Caring for native flowers and grasses helps former adult educator find ‘hope and joy in a dark time in the world’

After a career guiding newcomers through the logistics of life in Winnipeg, from registering with a family doctor to figuring out the transit system, Gerry Pearson turned her sights toward helping the city’s native plants settle back into place.

Trump administration terminates agreements to protect transgender students in several schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department said Monday it has terminated agreements with five school districts and a college aimed at upholding protections for transgender students, backing away from requirements negotiated by previous administrations that took a different interpretation of civil rights.

The decision removes the federal obligations for the schools to keep up measures such as faculty training on abiding by a students' preferred name and pronouns and allowing students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

One of the school systems, Delaware Valley School District in rural eastern Pennsylvania, received notice of the change from the Trump administration in February and has since voted to roll back its antidiscrimination protections for transgender students. Another district, Sacramento City Unified, said Monday it "remains committed to the support of our LGBTQ+ students and staff.”

The other affected districts are Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware, Fife School District in Washington, and La Mesa-Spring Valley School District and Taft College in California.

Tale of flight stuck on ‘freezing Canadian island’ gets warm laughs in Newfoundland

ST. JOHN'S - Newfoundlanders were having a chuckle on Monday over international media reports saying passengers on a British Airways flight diverted to St. John's last week were stranded on a frozen island somewhere in Canada.

Headlines describing Newfoundland as a "freezing island" had people cracking jokes and sharing weather statistics on social media. A spoof video on Reddit collected upvotes for its David Attenborough-style tale of marooned passengers scrounging for food and Wi-Fi signals in the capital city of more than 200,000 people.

It certainly wasn't easy for many of the 255 passengers who were grounded for two nights in Newfoundland and Labrador's capital city, Heather McKinnon, general manager at the Delta Hotel in St. John's, said Monday. They had no access to their luggage when a storm blew in and some spoke of missing funerals and weddings, she said in an interview.

But McKinnon said she hopes most know that Newfoundland is not a frozen wasteland, as the headlines appeared to suggest.

AP says it will offer buyouts as part of pivot away from newspaper-focused history

The Associated Press, one of the world's oldest and most influential news organizations, said Monday it is offering buyouts to an unspecified number of its U.S.-based journalists as part of an acceleration away from the focus on newspapers and their print journalism that sustained the company since the mid-1800s.

The News Media Guild, the union that represents AP journalists, said more than 120 of the staff members it represents received buyout offers on Monday.

The news organization is becoming more focused on visual journalism and developing new revenue sources, particularly through companies investing in artificial intelligence, to cope with the economic collapse of many legacy news outlets. Once the lion’s share of AP’s revenue, big newspaper companies now account for 10% of its income.

“We’re not a newspaper company and we haven’t been for quite some time,” Julie Pace, executive editor and senior vice president of the AP, said in an interview.

Canada in the European Union? Poll suggests broad openness to the idea

OTTAWA - New polling suggests a majority of Canadians think Canada should explore joining the European Union at a fraught time for geopolitical relations.

A survey of 4,000 people conducted by Spark Advocacy's polling arm in March found that one in four respondents thought it would be a good idea for Canada to formally join the economic and political bloc of European nations.

A further 58 per cent indicated it was a proposal worth considering further, while the remainder said it was a bad idea.

The Spark poll cannot be assigned a margin of error because it was conducted online.