Parade of ghostly icebergs brings joy and wonder to Newfoundland and Labrador

ST. JOHN'S -

At the top of Signal Hill in St. John's, N.L., on Tuesday afternoon, a steady stream of people walked around a rocky cliff and gasped.

Some cheered, some took out their phones to capture the moment — a rush of awe as an iceberg floated in the ocean below, cleaved off from a Greenland glacier and delivered by the Labrador current on a cloudless spring day.

It's a banner year for icebergs in Newfoundland and Labrador, where tourists and residents alike are gathering on shores across the province to welcome the ancient visitors.

Record-setting volunteer army invades downtown to clean up trash

An annual event to clear away downtown trash attracted more than 1,200 volunteers Thursday and also sparked a new program that will offer additional cleanups.

The single-day Downtown Winnipeg BIZ spring cleanup attracted about 1,265 participants, setting a record. About 900 volunteers participated last year.

The agency cut off registration early this year to ensure there weren’t more volunteers than available supplies.

Due to the surge in interest, the BIZ is now offering to help set up smaller community cleanups over the next few months to keep the work going.

Three Winnipeg restaurants among Canada’s best

Three Winnipeg restaurants have made it into the annual Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list.

Mandel Hitzer’s Deer + Almond and Emily Butcher’s Nola, both which appeared last year, retained their spots but dropped down in placing.

Hitzer’s restaurant at 85 Princess St. held the rear of the top 50, down 16 places from last year’s 34 ranking.

Nola (300 Taché Ave.) came in at 88, after making its debut on last years’ list at 86.

New space cleared for prayer at city’s airport

If you like to get grounded before you’re airborne, the Winnipeg Richardson International Airport has a place for you.

The airport now has a designated space where people of any faith can take a few minutes of quiet solitude to pray while they’re waiting for their flight.

It’s a small, carpeted area enclosed by movable panels against one of the glass walls of the arrivals and departures wing between Gates 9 and 10.

The prayer space is behind security, accessible only to passengers who are travelling.

‘It’s more than just a baseball team here’

Max Murphy is officially one of us now.

Want proof? The veteran Winnipeg Goldeyes outfielder, who was born and raised in Minnesota, has now experienced one of the great local traditions — the wedding social.

“It went really well. A really good time,” Murphy told the Free Press on Wednesday with a laugh. “I had never really heard about them. Then I got here and people were like, ‘This is a thing here.’ Went to a few and they were pretty fun. Figured, ‘Why not have my own?’”

The party was held two weekends ago for Murphy and his Winnipeg fiancée, Maddie, and included plenty of Goldeyes teammates and staff, along with family, friends and even some fans. It was a vivid reminder to Murphy of why he loves playing here so much.

Inclusive, integrated musical theatre company in Winnipeg first of its kind in Canada

With its first public performance — a revue of numbers from family favourites such as Toy Story and Frozen — a new performing arts organization in Winnipeg is aiming at a more accessible, accepting and diverse vision of musical theatre production.

Co-founded by theatre educators Brenda Gorlick, Lois Brothers and Laura Kolisnyk, AIM 4 All brings together performers with and without disabilities to train, practise and perform in full-scale musical productions: AIM stands for “all-inclusive musicals.”

This weekend, 28 Manitobans will take the stage in five stagings of Disney’s Dare to Dream Jr. at the University of Winnipeg’s Asper Centre for Theatre.

With plenty of supportive family and community members excited to see the result of months of preparation, the organizers are pleased to say each show is sold out.

Chartrand lauds court decision as ‘victory for Red River Métis’

The president of the Manitoba Métis Federation and others have been awarded nearly $12 million in legal fees after an unfounded and unreasonable attack by the Métis National Council, a judge has ruled.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Loretta Merritt said in a 15-page decision released on Monday that she was awarding court costs of $6.02 million to MMF president David Chartrand, $1.3 million to Clement Chartier, the MNC’s former president for almost two decades, and $2.06 million to former MNC executive director Wenda Watteyne.

The judge also awarded $2.4 million in costs to several consulting firms and consultants whose reputations were damaged when they were  falsely accused by the MNC of aiding the unfounded allegations of financial impropriety.

“Mr. Chartier and president (Chartrand) have devoted their lives to advancing the interests of the Métis nation,” Merritt wrote. “Ms. Watteyne dedicated the vast majority of her career to the service of the Métis community.

Feds, province urge court to toss ’60s Scoop lawsuits

Lawyers for the provincial and federal governments argue two lawsuits filed by the Manitoba Métis Federation over the apprehension of Métis children during the ’60s Scoop should be rejected.

In its first claim, filed in the Court of King’s Bench in November, the federation says the federal and provincial governments owe it damages for the harm caused by the ’60s Scoop to the Red River Métis as a whole.

In separate statements of defence filed in April, the two governments argue that lawsuit should be dismissed.

The Manitoba government, in its response, said it acknowledges children’s aid societies apprehended Indigenous children, including Métis, at a disproportionate rate and that many were placed for adoption in non-Indigenous homes across Canada and in the United States, which contributed to a loss in culture.

Despite discrimination, Winnipeg proved to be good fit for Jews fleeing Holocaust

Freda Shiel was 10 years old when the train from Halifax pulled into Winnipeg in 1948. Other families on the platform were met by relatives. Freda and her parents stood there alone. “It was a heartbreaking moment,” she recalled 40 years later, when the Winnipeg Second Generation Group came to record what she remembered.

In the years after May 8, 1945, the end of the Second World War in Europe, hundreds of thousands of survivors and refugees had to find somewhere to go. Some of them, through routes that were rarely straightforward, ended up here. By the late 1950s, roughly 1,000 Holocaust survivors had settled in Winnipeg — more than five per cent of the city’s Jewish population. Forty-eight testimonies including Freda’s, recorded in 1988 and 1989 and now held at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, are still relatively unknown. What they say about this city is more precise, and more complicated, than either a story of welcome or of failure.

Winnipeg did not simply receive these newcomers. It admitted them on terms they would spend decades reshaping. Philip Weiss arrived the same year as Freda. He had survived the ghettos and labour camps of occupied Poland and finally the Nazi concentration camp Mauthausen, where American troops liberated him on May 5, 1945 — a date he carried for the rest of his life. He landed in Halifax on Feb. 11, 1948, his birthday, and took the train west. After years in cattle cars, he marvelled at the white tablecloths and silver cutlery in the dining car, at cherry pie and banana splits that seemed almost unreal on the Canadian Prairies.

Like Weiss, most survivors came through schemes like the Tailor Project, a joint initiative of the Canadian Jewish Congress, garment manufacturers and the federal government that offered entry on the condition that they work in the needle trades.

Local garden centres rev up even as cold temperatures delay outdoor planting season

Colin Rémillard is obsessed with the weather.

When he and his family opened Winnipeg gardener’s staple Jardins St-Léon Gardens for the 2026 season on Wednesday, it came after weeks of chilly weather. But with staff itching to go — and customers waiting — they decided to open the doors after a “mad dash” to bring in produce and tag every product in the store one day earlier.

“Everything seemed to roll fairly well. We’re in good shape. It’s going to be a colder spring, that’s just reality,” Rémillard said from the garden centre Friday.

“We’ve had really nice springs for the past one or two years. We always remember only one year in the past, so we think this is unusual, but it is pretty normal to have this amount of cold.”

Census data does much more than determine population

The children of families who live in public housing in Tuxedo are more likely to graduate from high school, go to college or university, and less likely to need income assistance when they become adults than their counterparts who live just off Main Street in the North End.

How do we know this? The national census.

Officially known as the Census of Population, in the next few weeks, an estimated 41 million Canadians will receive this year’s census to fill in the boxes that reflect their lives. Most will receive the short form, which census officials say should take only five to 10 minutes to fill out. But 25 per cent of Canadians will receive the lengthier long-form census, which includes more demographic questions, and takes about a half-hour or so to complete, depending on the size of the household.

It’s only when the numbers are tallied that we will know exactly how many people there are in the country.

Working the family farm set up top NHL draft prospect Carels for hockey success

It takes a village to raise a hockey player.

Carson Carels would be the first to tell you his just happens to include hundreds of cows, goats, peacocks, chickens and whatever else might be wandering the 2,000 acres of rolling hills in south-central Manitoba that he and his family call home.

The farm isn’t just where the 17-year-old lives. It’s where he was built.

“It has shaped who I am,” said Carson.

Innocuous critter or varmint to vanquish? Debating best approach to Richardson’s ground squirrel long a Prairie predicament

A peculiar debate brewed in the pages of Saskatchewan’s newspapers in 2001.

It did not concern post-9/11 security or squabbles over federal gun and environmental policies, though it did evoke other perennial Canadian political tensions.

It had to do with gophers.

Saskatchewan’s NDP government was choosing an animal to symbolize the province, and the suggestion of a gopher was driving some squirrelly.

Captain Kennedy House reopens after $1.4-M upgrade

Manitobans will once again be able to enjoy tea and scones while taking in history — the tea room at the Captain Kennedy House has reopened after a 10-year absence.

The Heritage Tea Room is reopening after a $1.4-million restoration of the historic building on the Red River south of Lockport, Environment and Climate Change Minister Mike Moyes said Thursday.

Moyes said in a statement the building was restored and revitalized and will now offer visitors and area residents “a unique opportunity to experience the rich history of St. Andrews in a welcoming accessible environment.”

The stone house, a provincial heritage building, was built for Capt. William Kennedy, an Arctic explorer, Métis community leader, and Hudson’s Bay Company employee, in 1866.

Business council’s new housing alliance, partners complete first ‘deeply affordable’ project

A unique Manitoba business-led enterprise created to invest in​ affordable housing has completed its first project, helping to launch a 23-unit building in Winnipeg’s inner city.

The best hockey I knew was the first

“Nothing is as good as it used to be and it never was. The ‘golden age of sports,’ the golden age of anything, is the is the age of everyone’s childhood.” — Ken Dryden

I grew up in Winnipeg, in a small suburban enclave called Morse Place. Not exactly the centre of the hockey universe, but it was home. A little working-class pocket in the north part of the city. Terry Sawchuk, the great Detroit goaltender was probably our best known hockey export.

Dad worked in an iron foundry, and mom ran the house like a general. My older sister excelled at school and her choir singing. We weren’t poor, but let’s just say there was very little money left over after dad brought home the paycheque.

We didn’t have much, but we, or rather I, had the rink. The community club had one glorious sheet of outdoor ice with real boards, an old streetcar converted into a clubhouse, and a pot-bellied stove that tried to keep your toes from freezing. And yet … it was magic.

Brandon works on tourism strategy

Brandon Tourism says it selected UpHouse, a creative marketing agency in Winnipeg, to help build the city’s first comprehensive tourism strategy, which will be unveiled in the fall.

RMTC's Rubaboo: A Métis Cabaret is a musical mélange of jazz, folk, roots

You’ve probably had sirop d’érable and pemmican, but have you tried rubaboo?

A scoop of peas or corn, a dash of flour and onions, bison meat if you have it, a maple syrup garnish — and suddenly you’re cooking with bear grease (which you shouldn’t forget to add, either).

In a pinch, you might substitute grouse for bison meat, and throw in some extra turnip and parsnip plus wild vegetables to thicken your rubaboo stew.

Cooking and fusion metaphors are never far from how we talk about cultural blending, but in Canada, we’ve tended to resist America’s more assimilationist image of the melting pot. Instead, we talk of mosaics, or sometimes salad bowls, to emphasize eclecticism.

Proposed social-media ban for Manitoba children gets likes, thumbs-down

Mia Danyluk had a YouTube channel before she reached double digits. She was 11 years old when she signed up for Snapchat. In Grade 9, she joined Instagram.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was on social media that she learned about Manitoba’s plan to ban children and youth from accessing these platforms.

The irony was not lost on her — a 16-year-old who was raised in Winnipeg and on the borderless online world.

“We’re seeing younger and younger kids grow up with an iPad instead of toys in their hands. If we’re exposing kids to screens, we need to teach them online safety,” the high schooler said.

Community tip line making difference, but funds about to dry up, organizer says

Six months after launching a community-run crime tip line in William Whyte, the group behind the initiative is preparing to ask the province for additional funding to keep the program alive.

Darrell Warren, president of the William Whyte Neighbourhood Association, said $20,000 provided through the provincial property crime forfeiture fund last year will dry up in May.

“It’s a big asset. I didn’t think it would be as popular as it is,” Warren said Monday.

“There are a lot of good people in these neighbourhoods who are affected by this stuff and they do want to get involved. This gives them the tools they need. The police are stretched to the limits right now and we need to be those eyes and ears out in the neighbourhood.”

Antisemitism on the rise, becoming normalized, B’nai Brith warns

Canada is in the throes of a national antisemitism crisis, says B’nai Brith Canada.

The organization’s annual audit of antisemitic incidents reports 6,800 in 2025, 6,248 of which involved online hate.

That is a 9.3 per cent increase over 2024, when the total was 6,219, and it represents the highest total since 1995, said B’nai Brith, the country’s oldest human rights organization dedicated to eradicating racism, antisemitism and hatred.

The biggest spike in antisemitism occurred in 2023, when the number of incidents rose from 2,769 in 2022 to 5,791 following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.