Manitobans once rallied to save elected school boards. Now, voter apathy often wins at the polls

Front lawns were littered with “Local Voices, Local Choices” signs five years ago, protesting the imminent extinction of elected school boards.

Candidates are on the campaign trail today because public outcry forced the then-Progressive Conservative government to abandon its plans to replace trustees with political appointees in 2021.

The backlash to Bill 64 resulted in a new record of registrants, more than 500, for a legislative committee hearing. It became the backdrop for Premier Brian Pallister’s 2021 resignation. And it all but silenced discussion about whether the status quo in Manitoba — home to more school boards per capita than anywhere else in the country — needs even the most minor of redesigns.

Kelvin Goertzen immediately killed the bill when he became interim premier, but the longtime MLA said many of the problems that motivated his predecessor remain unsolved.

Province orders ban on private teacher-student messaging

Manitoba teachers are no longer allowed to text or use social media to contact a student – regardless of whether they coach a school sports team or supervise other activities outside typical instruction times.

AI usage is prominent in Winnipeg’s municipal race, and it’s likely here to stay

Winnipeg voters may have noticed an uncanny sheen to aspects of certain mayoral campaigns this year.

Social media images and text a little too synthetically smooth — or, in some cases, downright surreal.

“This is the new normal. Everyone needs to accept that there is going to be rampant AI use by political parties … it’s the speed of adoption that’s been so disorienting,” says Aengus Bridgman, a former Winnipegger and assistant professor at McGill University whose research addresses the intersection of artificial intelligence and democracy.

“(Generative-AI use in elections) ranges from innocent fun to augmenting an under-resourced campaign to pretty clear examples of misleading.”

Manitoba to focus on children — and adults — in revamped autism plan

The Manitoba government has announced a U-turn that will ensure its autism strategy covers children and adults alike in response to community backlash.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine announced Friday that recent amendments to Bill 232 — which would have bolstered disability-related support only for anyone aged 17 and under — will be reversed.

“I want families to know that we listened to every word that they said,” she said at a news conference inside her third-floor office at the Manitoba legislature.

The Autism Strategy Act will require the government to create a policy to improve the screening and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and support research.

Candu attitude: Carney says Canadian bid for Turkish nuclear plant has ‘good chances’

ISTANBUL - Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday a Canadian company has a real shot at winning a lucrative tender to supply nuclear energy to Turkey — a prospect he said was remote a year ago.

Carney was meeting with Turkish business leaders in Istanbul Friday, a day after he announced a new strategic partnership between Canada and Turkey to deepen co-operation on a range of files.

Energy is one of the pillars of that agreement and Carney said the AtkinsRéalis bid to supply two planned Turkish power plants with the Candu nuclear reactor now has "good chances" of succeeding, the prime minister said. He added it would have been a long-shot a year ago.

"We're in negotiations, and those negotiations are getting more intense. Probably from here to the end of the year, or around COP 31, it will be a decision for the Turkish government," Carney told reporters in French.

Most Canadian actors earn less than $20K per year from screen work, survey finds

TORONTO - Most Canadian actors can't pay the bills through onscreen work alone, according to a survey from the Canada Media Fund that found seven in 10 respondents earned less than $20,000 a year from their work on film and TV.

The poll of nearly a thousand screen performers also found only six per cent of respondents earned more than $75,000 per year, and just 13 per cent earned all their income from performing.

Two-thirds of respondents made less than half their money through acting, the Canada Media Fund said. The survey was conducted at the end of 2025 by Abacus Data, and asked performers to reflect on their earnings the year prior.

"People have to find other jobs, and really make ends meet in different ways ... to make their careers sustainable," said Diego Briceño, senior manager of data equity at the Canada Media Fund, who presented the report on Tuesday at the Reelworld Summit in downtown Toronto.

Addressing homelessness and toxic drug use

Winnipeg is facing a housing and toxic drug crisis that is not going away. Every day, we see the consequences — people living without safe homes, encampments in neighbourhoods and public spaces, increasingly toxic drugs, overdoses and emergency services stretched to their limits.

Campaign blunder: Klein features wrong city in election video

A paid ad from mayoral candidate Kevin Klein on his commitment to Winnipeg has been pulled after commenters noticed one small error: the footage used in the ad was actually of Edmonton.

Surprising announcement opens door slightly for accountability in police HQ saga

Early Monday afternoon, it looked as if former Mayor Sam Katz, former chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl and contractor Armik Babakhanians were going to finally and successfully escape the long arm of the law for their roles in the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters scandal.

Prosecutions branch reviewing new evidence from police HQ public inquiry

The Manitoba Prosecution Service is examining whether evidence presented during the inquiry could change previous decisions not to lay charges in the scandal-plagued project.

Katz ‘violated public trust,’ Sheegl lacked ‘moral compass,’ police HQ inquiry commissioner concludes

The final report from the public inquiry into the scandal-plagued Winnipeg Police Service headquarters construction project concludes that former mayor Sam Katz and former city CAO Phil Sheegl broke public trust and engaged in unethical conduct.

And the report, released Monday by inquiry commissioner Garth Smorang, says the cost of the project — transforming a downtown Canada Post office tower and warehouse into the police HQ — soared, in part, because main contractor Caspian Projects overcharged the city by more than $40 million in expenses.

The project’s initial $135-million initial price tag rose to about $209 million in the end. The city purchased the complex in 2009; construction was completed in 2016.

Smorang’s report concludes Katz “violated the public trust” and council code of conduct, and Sheegl suffered from a “complete lack of a moral compass.”

Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserve running dry amid high demand

MONTRÉAL - The head of Quebec's maple syrup producers' association says the province's strategic syrup reserve has run dry amid high demand for the product.

Québec Maple Syrup Producers President Luc Goulet says government support will be needed to ensure the industry doesn't miss out on opportunities to grow the sector.

Maple syrup yields depend on weather conditions.

As a result, the producers' association has established a strategic reserve to ensure prices and supply remain relatively stable.

News publishers launch copyright suit against AI company Anthropic in Ontario

OTTAWA - A coalition of news publishers that includes Canada’s largest newspapers is suing the AI company Anthropic in an Ontario court.

Postmedia, Torstar, The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press say Anthropic infringed on their copyright by using their content to develop its large language AI model Claude.

"Anthropic has capitalized on the commercial success of its AI models, building an expansive suite of services, and raised significant capital — all without obtaining a valid licence from any of the News Media Companies," says the statement of claim.

"In doing so, Anthropic has been substantially and unjustly enriched to the detriment of the News Media Companies."

Province looks to keep nearly $1M from traffic stop

The RCMP constable could see that Alireza Haghgoo was nervous. The 22-year-old, seated as a passenger in a rental Nissan SUV the Mountie pulled over for speeding outside Brandon in late July, was breathing heavily and tapping his foot constantly.

Oseredok's centrepiece mosaic is a testament to Ukrainian heritage

With impressionism, things can look messy when you’re eyeing the brush strokes up close. Stand back, voila, the piece comes into focus.

But with photomosaics, an image made up of hundreds of smaller photos, it’s the opposite. The closer you stand, the more images you see.

In the era of AI art, it’s all too easy to fire off a kitschy digital photomosaic. The internet is littered with mindless renderings showing, say, an image of the Statue of Liberty made up of a thousand Big Macs.

It’s another and rare thing to build a photomosaic by hand, with a genuine artist’s grasp of the form’s strange double life. This is what, for the past eight years or so, a collaborative team — in particular Edmonton-based creator and curator Larisa Sembaliuk Cheladyn, sculptor Royden Mills, Theodora Harasymiw and a group of volunteers — did for Ukrainian Voice: A Legacy Mosaic, one of four new exhibitions at the Oseredok: Ukrainian Cultural and Education Centre.

Engagement politics activates citizens

With the upcoming Winnipeg municipal election just around the corner, Free Press contributors are reminding us of the risks of low voter turnout and encouraging us to exercise our civic responsibility by casting our votes.

Behind the push to make smoking and vaping illegal for a generation of Canadians

OTTAWA - It's illegal for kids under 18 to buy tobacco products in Canada and there's a movement afoot to make sure today's youth are never allowed to light up a cigarette — even after they come of age.

A law that will take effect in the United Kingdom in January will prohibit anyone born after 2008 from ever legally buying cigarettes.

In Canada, lobbyists are pushing the federal government to go even further by banning smoking and vaping products for the next generation entirely.

Sarah Sleet, CEO of Asthma + Lung U.K., said there has been broad public support for the move in Britain but it took decades of lobbying and advocacy.

Bank of Canada’s Macklem warns global resilience ‘under strain’

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem is warning that persistently high global energy prices will drive up the outlook for inflation at home.

While Macklem said global resilience is being tested after a series of shocks, he also expressed some confidence in Canada's ability to weather the storm.

The head of the Bank of Canada spoke to reporters on Saturday in a press conference from the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund meetings in Bangkok.

He said the prevailing message from his peers at the summit is that the global economy has been performing better than expected in the face of ongoing wars in Iran and Ukraine, sweeping trade disruptions and higher borrowing costs from rising bond yields.

Célébrer ‘la base de notre communauté’

Excursion exceptionnelle, conférences et défi financier, voici ce qui attend la Société historique de Saint-Boniface (SHSB) pour ses 125 ans. Fondée le 4 septembre 1902 par l’archevêque Adélard Langevin, cette institution garde entre ses murs les archives du patrimoine franco-manitobain et métis de l’Ouest canadien.

Un trésor précieux mis à disposition de la communauté. Ce rôle de passeur de mémoire, la nouvelle présidente, en poste depuis juin 2026, Michelle Smith le revendique : “Pour moi, la Société historique ça dit qui nous sommes, c’est comme la base de notre communauté. Ça vient confirmer qu’on existe, que nous avons une place ici.”

”Ces institutions fondées par Monseigneur Langevin, comme La Liberté, font partie des bases qui ont supporté la société francophone dans un contexte minoritaire pendant des décennies, rappelle Émilie Pigeon, directrice générale. C’est merveilleux qu’on ait réussi non seulement à préserver ces institutions pour plus de 125 ans, mais à les faire croître au point tel que la SHSB est désormais un incontournable pour tout ce qui a trait aux questions du passé collectif du Manitoba francophone.” Une mission réussie qui vaut bien une célébration d’anniversaire pour la saison 2027, qui se veut “plus mouvementée” que la saison 2026.

Une programmation exceptionnelle

Diesel bill adds to cost-price squeeze on farm

Blessed with a week of good weather, most Manitoba farmers are now in the home stretch of harvest and beginning to assess whether their crop will earn enough to cover the cost of growing it.

Commodity market prices have surged well above the numbers used to prepare production budgets earlier this year, with the price of top-quality milling wheat up 27 per cent over a year ago. Canola and soybeans are up 36 per cent and oats by 14 per cent.

That’s a significant boost for the crops harvested in good shape before rainy weather shut down operations for a couple of weeks during the critical harvesting window. However, upwards of half of the province’s crop overall was affected by the bad weather, resulting in yet-to-be calculated yield and quality losses.

Then there’s the cost side of the balance sheet.