Hurrying hard for Jamaican flavours infusing West St. Paul Curling Club

WEST ST. PAUL — This month marks a full decade since Vincent Dennis opened a Caribbean-flavoured restaurant inside the West St. Paul Curling Club.

And although it could be assumed that a person who has spent that much time in the vicinity of rocks and rings would have picked up a thing or two about the roaring game by now, that doesn’t appear to be the case with the Jamaican-born owner of Tropical Thunder.

Not even close.

“I’ve been here since 2015 and I still don’t have a clue what I’m staring at,” Dennis, 52, says with a chuckle, seated at a table offering a perfect view of the 62-year-old club’s four curling sheets.

A century later, Ukrainian church still helping new Ukrainians

When it was founded in 1925, St. Mary the Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in the North End was a welcoming and helpful place for immigrants seeking new lives in Canada.

As the church celebrates its centennial, it is still welcoming and helping Ukrainians fleeing war in their homeland.

“Helping each other never stops,” Eugene Hyworon, co-chair of the cathedral’s centennial committee, said.

A centennial gala will be held Saturday.

Un nouveau souffle pour les paroisses

Longtemps confrontées à un déclin de fréquentation, plusieurs paroisses manitobaines trouvent un nouveau dynamisme grâce à l’immigration. Fidèles et prêtres venus d’ailleurs redessinent aujourd’hui le visage du catholicisme francophone au Manitoba.

Pour le meilleur comme pour le pire, l’Église catholique est étroitement liée avec l’histoire du Manitoba.

À ce jour, le catholicisme est encore la première religion de la province puisqu’environ 21,2 pour cent de la population est de confession catholique selon Statistique Canada.

Au même titre que la religion, l’immigration a elle aussi contribué à façonner le visage du pays d’abord, puis de ses provinces.

‘Praying in unity’: Eid worshippers celebrate Feast of Sacrifice

Around 15,000 local Muslims converged on the convention centre Friday to mark Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice.

The event remembers the story in the Qur’an of Ibrahim’s willingness to obey God by sacrificing his son, Ishmael (known as Abraham and Isaac in the Old Testament, or what Jews call the Tanakh). It was held in three sessions to accommodate everyone who came to pray and hear sermons from Islamic leaders.

French speaking worshippers also gathered at the Heather Curling Club for prayers.

Ismael Mukhtar, an imam at the Grand Mosque, preached about the importance of being willing to follow God in life and to submit to him.

Muslim student association serving thousands of meals during Ramadan at U of M

The University of Manitoba Muslim Students’ Association is serving more than 7,000 free meals during the month of Ramadan.

Le logo d’un francophile de cœur

Originaire du quartier Tyndall Park à Winnipeg, c’est pourtant à Saint-Boniface que l’anglophone Jonato Dalayoan a choisi de s’installer il y a 22 ans. “C’était mon premier domicile, et depuis je suis toujours resté ici avec ma femme et mes enfants.”

Lui-même d’origine philippine, et sa femme germano-philippine, ils ont pleinement embrassé Saint-Boniface, sa culture francophone, et bien sûr son Festival du Voyageur. “Mes enfants vont à l’école d’immersion française et parlent couramment le français, affirme-t-il avec fierté. Je les appelle mes francopinos! En fait, ils parlent très bien le français mais pas du tout le filipino.”

Le Festival du Voyageur, la famille Dalayoan y a donc passé de nombreuses journées à travers les années. Jonato Dalayoan raconte: “Je vis proche du parc Provencher et je me souviens que dans mes premières années à Saint-Boniface, il y avait des sculptures de neige du Festival dans le parc Provencher. C’était toujours quelque chose que j’avais très hâte d’aller voir.

“Aujourd’hui, on va souvent au parc du Voyageur avec les enfants. Le Festival a beaucoup changé dans les cinq à dix dernières années, il y a beaucoup de nouvelles activités, de nouveaux spectacles, de nouvelles musiques, c’était vraiment cool pour toute la famille!”

Noir et fier met les mots sur les maux

Noir et Fier revient jusqu’au 28 février pour un mois de festivités et d’animations placées sous le signe de l’échange et de la guérison. Wilgis Agossa, directeur artistique, nous en dit plus sur les nouveautés de la quatrième édition.

“Mots sur Maux,” voilà le thème du festival Noir et Fier cette année. La programmation a été pensée de façon à créer des temps d’échanges autour de diverses activités où des histoires touchantes pourront être racontées, celles des personnes noires.

La première nouveauté se tiendra au Théâtre Cercle Molière (TCM) lors des “Dimanches en famille”. Ce rendez-vous hebdomadaire, déjà en place au TCM, s’adapte pour proposer des animations telles que de la danse, du break, des jeux ou encore des contes pour “nous permettre de nous enrichir,” indique Wilgis Agossa.

En parallèle, un autre moment de rencontres se tiendra chaque milieu de semaine avec “Les mercredis je conte,” de 17 h 30 à 19 h. Le public pourra y découvrir des histoires de plusieurs peuples. “Dans les cultures noires, la tradition orale a une grande richesse, explique Wilgis Agossa. Quand on veut faire passer un message et dire les choses, on utilise le conte. Ce rendez-vous nous permettra de voyager vers un autre continent, que ce soit avec les contes d’Afrique centrale, d’Afrique de l’Ouest ou même des Caraïbes.”

Quand les émotions se dégagent des formes et des couleurs

L’artiste peintre Xavier Mutshipayi présente pour la première fois ses créations dans l’exposition Nouveaux Horizons à la galerie d’art du Centre culturel franco-manitobain (CCFM).

Il s’agit de la troisième présentation solo du peintre originaire du Congo. L’occasion pour lui de présenter une nouvelle facette de son travail. En effet, si Xavier Mutshipayi est plutôt connu pour son style réaliste, ses créations évoluent ici vers l’art abstrait et l’impressionnisme.

La galerie du CCFM accueille environ une dizaine de tableaux dont la majorité ont été conçus pour l’évènement. Parmi eux, quatre toiles arborent un style abstrait tandis que quatre autres reprennent les codes du mouvement impressionniste. Cette évolution artistique s’est développée au fil des années pour Xavier Mutshipayi.

“Comme pour l’homme, l’artiste grandit et change avec le temps. L’endroit où j’habite et mon parcours de vie m’inspirent dans mes créations. C’est pourquoi il y a beaucoup de portraits dans mes œuvres. À force de travailler, j’ai développé un style, une patte.”

‘A divine feeling’: Mosque becomes a reality for Morden’s Muslim families

There’s a new place of worship in Morden — the city’s first mosque.

Operated by the Pembina Valley Islamic Society, the mosque is located in an 1,800-square-foot former commercial space in a downtown strip mall on North Railway Street.

Approval for the mosque, called a masjid in Arabic, was granted by Morden city council on Dec. 23.

The mosque, which will serve about 150 Muslim families in the area, joins 17 other places of worship, all of them Christian, in the city of nearly 10,000 people.

How changing demographics and tastes are shaping Canada’s grocery stores

It’s mid-December at a large supermarket in Mississauga, Ont., and Christmas music plays softly over the speakers as customers roam the aisles, picking the perfect lemon and eyeing the large olive counter in the middle of the store.

But this isn't just any grocery store. Walk past the produce and the olives, and you'll see trays of tabbouleh, hummus and fattoush, as well as shawarma cooking on rotating spits. Further, you’ll find a large dessert section with neat displays of golden baklava and other sweets. Behind two swinging doors, rows of puffed-up pita bread emerge on a conveyor belt from the oven, ready to be packaged and sold to customers.

This is Adonis, a Middle Eastern grocer that got its start in Montreal in 1978. The grocer is gearing up to open its 16th store, this one in London, Ont., next summer to meet demand from customers who often travel weekly to shop at the Mississauga location.

Specialty stores like Adonis are enjoying growth thanks to not only immigration but also the more diverse tastes of younger generations.

Serving — and feeding — the community

A group of young Muslim men walked up and down Main Street Saturday morning offering sandwiches, loaves of bread and cans of pop to Winnipeg’s homeless population in the spirit of holiday giving.

“This is what I was taught from a very young age, to volunteer for a good cause and to give back,” said Faraad Tahir, who has been a part of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association since he was a boy.

Tahir and others from the 50-person group spent the morning making more than 100 sandwiches before loading up their vehicles and heading downtown. The group handed out the food and drinks to people outside of Main Street Project and Siloam Mission before they planned to give out the remainder — if there was any — at Portage Place.

Tahir, 22, came to Winnipeg from Pakistan as a child and immediately felt the group’s community support.

Les Aces de Saint-Anne lancent une soirée francophone

Le Comité culturel de Sainte-Anne lance sa première soirée de hockey francophone. Le 7 décembre à 19 h, les Aces de Sainte-Anne affronteront les Hawks de Notre Dame à l’aréna Maurice-Chaput.

L’idée vient de la “voix des Aces” Marc Connelly, s’inspirant des soirées thématiques dans les sports professionnels. “C’est une manière d’encourager les gens à venir à nos parties,” explique-t-il.

Peu après avoir proposé l’évènement à sa mère, Diane Connelly, secrétaire au Comité culturel, un nouveau sous-comité a vu le jour pour organiser la soirée.

“On veut essayer de mettre autant de français qu’on peut dans la fête, ajoute Diane Connelly. Une grande soirée est planifiée, car on veut que la ville sache, qu’au rural, on fait des choses!”

The gift of hijab: Fashion designer found empowerment in modesty

As a Muslim woman living in Canada, Hafsa Altaf faced countless challenges on multiple fronts when navigating the fashion industry as a woman in a hijab.

Rejected by local trade shows and craft markets and criticized by detractors in the South Asian community who disapproved of her sartorial ambitions, the 27-year-old artist and designer remained undaunted.

Undeterred by naysayers, she relentlessly called and emailed event organizers, determined to convey the values and mission of her label, Fashion by Hafsa.

Facing down the conservatism of her community was an altogether different struggle, but it was also one of the “greatest things” she has ever done, says the Pakistani-born Canadian, who moved to Saskatchewan with her family when she was four.

Canada reports fastest population growth in history in third quarter of 2023

OTTAWA - Canada's pace of population growth continues to set records as the country brings in a historic number of temporary residents, largely through international student and temporary foreign worker programs.

The country'spopulation grew by more than 430,000 during the third quarter, marking the fastest pace of population growth in any quarter since 1957.

Statistics Canada released its Oct. 1 population estimates on Tuesday, putting the number at more than 40.5 million.

The agency says the population growth over the first nine months of 2023 has already surpassed the total growth in any other full year, including the record set in 2022.

New Islamic school set to open in city

While students and teachers look forward to the end of classes, new school trustee Delvinder Zamir anticipates piles of summer homework.

As the board chair of the yet-unnamed new Islamic elementary school supported by the Manitoba Islamic Association, Zamir plans to hire teachers, furnish classrooms and buy supplies before the institution opens its doors in September.

“It will be nice to see parents and kids come to a spiritual place where they can use it in a different way,” she says of the kindergarten to Grade 4 school to be based out of Winnipeg Grand Mosque and Community Centre on Waverley Street.

The fourth Islamic school in Winnipeg, this one is the first located at a mosque and run as a project by Manitoba Islamic Association, and the only one in southwest Winnipeg, says Zamir, who also serves as second vice-president of the MIA board. Members asked for a community-run Islamic school at the mosque since they faced waiting lists at other schools, she says.

A novel to weave Filipino roots into her sons’ future

In Primrose Madayag Knazan’s first novel, food is the gateway to a fuller understanding of self. It’s a narrative arc that’s played out many times in real life for the Winnipeg playwright.

Lessons in Fusion follows 16-year-old food blogger Sarah as she embarks on a virtual cooking competition that pushes her to explore her Filipino heritage. It’s an eye-opening journey for the main character, who was raised emphatically Jewish.

Like Sarah, Madayag Knazan is Jewish and also re-connected with her Filipino roots later in life.

“I grew up at a time when my parents were basically told, ‘You can’t speak Filipino to your daughter anymore because she’s not going to be smart, she’s not going to succeed’,” says Madayag Knazan, whose family immigrated to Winnipeg from the Philippines in 1974. “I lost that tie to my culture and I’ve been fighting to get that back since then.”

City’s oldest halal shop a community cornerstone

To step into Manitoba’s longest-running halal store is to feel all your senses go off at once.

Colourful spices lining the shelves, hookahs of every size and variety, signage above each aisle in English and Arabic, the smell of warm samosas. On a small television a video of Muslim worshippers in Mecca with prayers overlaid plays, above one of the store’s tightly-packed lanes.

At the heart of it all, 70-year-old owner Yusuf Abdulrehman is somehow the most vibrant aspect of the store.

Seemingly unable to stop moving, he paces through the aisles of the Halal Meat Centre, located at 206 Maryland St., fixing products just so, talking to suppliers on speaker phone, but always stopping to greet customers, many he knows by name. It’s no wonder that many in Winnipeg’s Muslim community fondly refer to the store as simply “Yusuf’s.”