Pimicikamak’s $20-M in unpaid Hydro bills pales in comparison to what Hydro owes First Nation, chief says

To underline its anger over unresolved compensation from the 1977 Northern Flood Agreement, the Pimicikamak (Cross Lake) Cree Nation stopped paying its electricity bills from Manitoba Hydro about 10 years ago. Now, the remote First Nation owes more than $20 million in arrears on its residential accounts.

Who calls the shots on city land use?

Everybody thinks it, but no one wants to say it out loud — the fact that for decades, our city council and its administration have, to a large degree, been in thrall to the construction and development industries.

Flicks Cinema enters sixth decade as Stonewall amenity with new energy, new ownership

STONEWALL — Ever since Vince Levenec and his family purchased a movie theatre, he’s gotten used to hearing about patrons’ early romantic encounters.

“Everybody says, ‘That’s where I sat when I had my first kiss,’” Levenec said. “Everybody in town comes in and has that story about the Flicks Cinema.”

Opened in 1975, the single-screen, 200-seat theatre served moviegoers in Stonewall for nearly 50 years before closing its doors in December 2024. When longtime owner Don Smith put the building up for sale last summer, Levenec and wife, Amanda Van Solkema were immediately interested.

Van Solkema grew up in Stonewall, and seeing movies at Flicks Cinema has been a key part of her experience in the bedroom community roughly 25 kilometres north of Winnipeg. Around 15 years ago, Smith was thinking about selling the theatre, Van Solkema said, and she asked him about it.

Chirp heard around Manitoba: RM sells building for $1 to cricket farm entrepreneur

One dollar doesn’t stretch very far these days, but apparently it’s enough to buy a business in Benito.

Fewer than one in five Manitobans are sure they know fabricated online content when they see it: survey

When Weekly World News stories about a half-boy, half-bat lined supermarket checkout lanes in the 1990s, most consumers — including Probe Research partner Curtis Brown — could readily, easily and confidently identify the eye-grabbing tabloid reports as false.

“When it comes to (content generated by) AI, people have a bit less confidence,” says Brown. “Sometimes it’s very obviously so-called AI slop — like a historical figure talking about something contemporary. The last couple of months I’ve seen a lot of videos of JFK talking about what a fool his nephew is.”

Even if a quick Google search to note RFK Jr. was nine when his uncle was assassinated in 1963 — marking such videos as debris in an artificial intelligence mudslide — new media literacy polling conducted by Probe for the Free Press reveals that only 18 per cent of Manitobans feel very confident that they can identify whether video footage is “fake or AI-generated.”

Of the 1,000 Manitobans randomly surveyed by Probe between Nov. 25 and Dec. 10, 13 per cent believed that they’d personally shared video, images or text on social media that they didn’t realize was fake.

Alberta group gets green light to collect signatures for separation referendum

EDMONTON - Alberta's election agency has fired the starter's pistol on the race to collect enough names for a referendum on the province quitting Canada.

Elections Alberta announced Friday that Mitch Sylvestre and the Alberta Prosperity Project have from Saturday until May 2 to collect just under 178,000 signatures to qualify.

"Citizen initiative petition signature sheets have been issued," Elections Alberta said in a statement Friday.

"The proponent may now proceed with collecting signatures."

Filipino-style fried-chicken biz off to a sizzling start

Before we begin, John Tadeo wants to make it abundantly clear that Popoy’s, the tag he and his girlfriend Patricia Santiago settled on for their Filipino-style fried-chicken biz, isn’t a play on an international fried-chicken chain that bears the name of a certain, spinach-loving sailor-man.

When Tadeo was a youngster growing up in the Philippines, his paternal grandmother never called him anything but Popoy, a derivative of Popo, which is Tagalog for little boy or child. His parents continue to address him by that term of affection to this day, so last winter, when he and Santiago were tossing around potential names for their fledgling enterprise, they agreed Popoy’s Golden Chicken had a better ring to it than John’s or Patricia’s.

“I guess if somebody associated with Popeyes (Louisiana Kitchen) ever tells us we can’t call ourselves (Popoy’s), we’d probably just change it to Poy’s,” Tadeo says, standing next to Santiago in the commercial kitchen at Riverview Community Centre, where they accept pickup orders on a regular basis, usually every other weekend.

“But since Popoy is my name, I’m not sure what argument they’d have.”

The inconvenient truth: Thomas King’s admission he isn’t Cherokee hits hard

Intentionally or not, the real-life consequences of King’s story is that his inability to find out the truth of his own identity, which apparently wasn’t hard for others, meant Canadians were duped, Indigenous peoples were marginalized, and all of us are left to ask a lot of questions.

Métis federation sues Ottawa, Manitoba over Sixties Scoop

The Manitoba Métis Federation is suing the federal and Manitoba governments for damages caused to the Red River Métis as a whole when an unknown number of children were placed with non-Indigenous families during the Sixties Scoop.

Investing for ourselves, and those downstream

We have invested large sums of money in infrastructure before.

You don’t often hear Winnipeggers complaining about the results: soft, clean drinking water thanks to the Shoal Lake aqueduct and flood protection thanks to the Red River Floodway.

A new city report outlines the importance of upgrading Winnipeg’s North End sewage treatment plant, which is responsible for treating 70 per cent of the city’s wastewater and all sewage sludge. The report focuses on the upgrades’ potential benefits to the city, including increased capacity to build new homes and businesses, and related economic growth.

It briefly mentions that upgrades to the plant are necessary in order to meet environmental regulations designed to protect waterways from the discharge of harmful materials that compromise the health of the Red River and Lake Winnipeg.

Merry and bright: more than 40,000 expected for annual Santa Claus Parade

Saturday’s annual downtown parade will feature Santa and the Grey Cup, which will be contested Sunday between the Montreal Alouettes and Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Canadian sprinter Brendon Rodney helping with hurricane relief aid in Jamaica

Brendon Rodney knows even helping a few people is enough to make a big difference.

The three-time Olympic medallist sprinter from Toronto lives in Jamaica where Hurricane Melissa caused significant damage, mainly in the northwest and southwest parts of the country. The Category 5 hurricane hit the island last week and took a number of lives as well.

"It's always tough because it's my home, ... I live here, but it's my home away from home," he said. "And the people that have been affected are not just people that I don't know. But of course my training partners, the students at the school and many different people that I interact with on a day to day, month to month basis.

"So for me, this is difficult because you can't help everybody, but as long as you can help one, two or three people then it does make a big difference. So for us, it's just finding ways that we can help in any possible way."

Unique Bunny jumps to 10 stores, with eye on future expansion

Ekam Verma’s shopping trip might be sparked by an email: we’ve restocked. Her destination? Unique Bunny. Verma scanned the aisles of Unique Bunny’s McPhillips Street location on Monday — her go-to Japanese eyeliner was across the store; South Korean cleansing foams and pore repair serums stood nearby.

Counting on fans for countdown to 60th Festival du Voyageur

Festival du Voyageur is seeking memories and memorabilia to help celebrate an upcoming milestone anniversary.

Annual Diwali celebration puts spotlight on Hindu culture, customs and community

‘Even a single lamp dispels the deepest darkness’

— Mahatma Gandhi

The Hindu Society of Manitoba welcomed more than 5,000 attendees to its Diwali Mela on Oct. 11. The annual bazaar-type event streamed bright lights throughout the RBC Convention Centre in the spirit of celebrating Hindu culture, customs, community connections and camaraderie and cheer.

At this moment in time, as many of us and as many corners of the world face challenges and conflicts, the Diwali vibe offers a reminder to hold firmly onto the message that darkness is defeated by lamps of light and love.

Local Buddhist Temple teaches true meaning of karma; promotes positive living

A popular misconception about the Buddhist idea of karma is that it’s about punishment — a kind of cosmic “what goes around comes around.”

While Buddhists believe actions have consequences, karma is a much deeper idea than that, said Kyle Rathgaber, a board member of the Manitoba Buddhist Temple.

“Karma is not about retribution,” he said. “It’s not about being punished for something you did wrong.”

While there are elements of negative consequences in the idea of karma — if you are angry at others all the time, you may feel stress and anxiety in your own life — for Rathgaber, 34, it’s more about how people can peacefully and helpfully engage the world around them.

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.

A petition you should consider signing

Let’s just keep track of e-6679 and ask ourselves whether it’s not about time for plenty of us to sign it.

What is e-6679? Well, it’s an electronic petition to the House of Commons, suggesting that federal politicians and candidates who knowingly mislead the public should face penalties, including, potentially, being disqualified from sitting in the House of Commons.

Here’s the prayer — the details — of the petition.

“Whereas: Members of Parliament (MPs) have been accused of making important public statements that are false and without evidence; Misinformation is a growing threat to the proper functioning of, as well as faith in, our democratic process; A mechanism is needed to verify MPs’ public statements to maintain trust in our governing body; Artificial Intelligence is amplifying misinformation; Current events in the United States demonstrate the dangers of not addressing this problem; and The Institute for Constitutional and Democratic Research (ICDR) of Wales, UK, proposed a white paper entitled ‘A Model for Political Honesty,’ created because ‘the Welsh Government will bring forward legislation before 2026 for the disqualification of Members and candidates found guilty of deliberate deception through an independent judicial process and will invite the committee to make proposals to that effect.’

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.

Black-led non-profit developer gets federal funds for affordable housing units in north part of city

A Black-led real estate developer has become the first in Canada to secure federal funding, paving the way for 30 affordable housing units within a new 72-unit development in north Winnipeg.

Non-profit Inuka Community Inc. received $23.3 million through the Affordable Housing Fund, administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. The CMHC set aside $50 million specifically for Black-led organizations to help create more than 500 units.

The new rental complex at 1510 Main St., will include 30 one-bedroom, 30 two-bedroom and 12 three-bedroom units. Thirty of those units, in a mix of sizes, will be designated affordable and aimed at newcomers to the city, with available supports such as debt management, credit building and driver training.

“Lots of sleepless nights to get here,” said Naomi Gichungu, Inuka’s chief executive officer.

New truths emerge among sea of orange

No matter where you are, the path towards reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples and Canadians has been very turbulent over the past decade.

In the 10 years since the end of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the 94 calls to action, much attention has been placed on the progress — and lack thereof — towards changing the policies, practices and beliefs that embody principles of Indigenous inferiority and Canadian superiority.

The fact is: the Indian Act, the most racist law in Canadian history, is still here.

Virtually all of the Indigenous land stolen during the last 150 years remains stolen.