Truth, home, nature: Renaming process for Wolseley School 'requires care’

Wolseley School will be renamed after the towering trees that surround it, a perennial grass found in nearby Omand’s Creek or a Michif phrase.

Winnipeg-based organization injects federal funds into innovative, women-powered business in Bolivia

With practised grace, Antonia Olpo slides down the bank of the long, shallow pond and plunges fully clothed into the muddy water. On the grass above, other women and their male helpers unfurl the net, stretching it across the pond from edge to edge, and let it sink below the surface.

Lawyer, philanthropist had a fierce sense of social justice

A luminary in human rights advocacy, Canadian lawyer Yude Henteleff was a natural explorer both in his travels and in his daily life. Henteleff lived 97 years with passion and dynamism.

He died Dec. 8, 2024.

Henteleff’s accomplishments and list of awards and accolades began at age 16 when he was elected president of the Jewish Youth Council and then to the youth division of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His activities in the Jewish community were extensive and lifelong.

The father, grandfather and partner lived life to the fullest, propelled by a fierce sense of social justice and belief in “tikkun olam,” a Hebrew phrase meaning “to repair the world.”

Rupert’s Land inhabitants blindsided by Canada’s purchase of their homeland in 1869

When the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) reached an agreement to sell Rupert’s Land to Canada in the spring of 1869, it came as a complete surprise to the people living in what is today Western Canada. They were neither consulted on the proposed annexation nor given any details about how it would affect their lives.

While our 150th birthday party is a big, 'Dominion Day' began with respectful restraint

It’s safe to say what is now called Canada Day had modest beginnings in these parts.As far back as 1869 — two years after Confederation and one year before Manitoba was born — the July 3 issue of the Nor’Wester, the paper of record for the “Colony of Assiniboia,” dutifully reported that celebrations on July 1 were muted.

“Dominion Day was kept in our little town by the raising of the ‘Canadian’ flag upon the now celebrated staff — said to be 70 feet, be the same 20 feet more or less — which flag was liberal sainted during the day by an ‘Anvil Chorus’ adapted to ‘God Save the Queen’ and ‘Hurrah! for the New Dominion,” the paper noted. “The affair was wound up by a large bonfire in the evening.

“Not a gun was heard, or a funeral note or anything else,” the account added, “but then you see the H.B.C. (Hudson Bay Company) is keeping her patriotism like champagne, well bottled and wired down, for a future occasion, when we may expect to see it burst forth in a manner calculated to astonish the natives.”

Of course, these were the days of the Riel Rebellion in the Red River Colony. Not exactly the time to be popping that “champagne” in public. Besides, the majority of the less than 1,000 colony settlers considered themselves British. And a vast majority of residents, the Métis under Riel, were literally at war with the new Canada.

Les souvenirs d’un vétéran de Bosnie et d’Afghanistan

On n'a jamais tiré sur Marc Lavoie. Ni en Bosnie, ni en Afghanistan. Mais l'adjudant-maître du 38e Groupe-brigade du Canada connaît intimement les zones sinistrées par la guerre.

Lorsque Lavoie est arrivé en Bosnie, en 1997, la période de violence armée dans l'ancienne Yougoslavie était révolue. Le natif de Kapuskasing, aujourd'hui adjudant-maître chargé du maintien de l'équipement du 38e Groupe-brigade du Canada, se souvient "bien clairement" des ravages de la guerre.

"Les forces canadiennes faisaient alors partie de la mission de l'OTAN, chargée de stabiliser les zones sinistrées en Bosnie-Herzégovine, Croatie, Macédoine et au Kosovo. J'étais stationné la base canadienne de Drvar, en Bosnie, pour mes deux tours de mission. "J'assumais le maintien des véhicules, des génératrices d'électricité et d'autres équipements militaires. Parfois, il fallait quitter la base pour remorquer des véhicules qui avait été touchés par des mines.

"Le grand défi c'était de stabiliser la région. On était l pour aider les habitants du pays se remettre sur pied. Des villages entiers avaient été dévastés par la guerre. Dans bien des endroits, les gens vivaient comme au 19e siècle. On chargeait nos camions de bois pour le chauffage, sans parler d'eau potable.