Every year in Canada and around the world, families are devastated by the loss of an infant sleeping peacefully yet never waking. These heartbreaking tragedies, known as sleep-related infant deaths, encompass SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), accidental suffocation, and other unexplained causes.

In 2024, the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth (MACY) released Shifting the Lens, reporting that between 2019 and 2021, Manitoba experienced 48 such deaths — each one a life cut short, a dream shattered, and a family and community forever changed. Although overall rates initially declined over previous decades, progress has stalled, and inequities persist. As we approach Safe Sleep Week 2026, let’s reimagine our collective approach — from policy to public messaging — to make infant sleep environments as safe as possible for all.

Families facing poverty, housing instability, histories of colonization and systemic inequities are disproportionately affected by sleep-related infant deaths. Addressing these deaths requires shifting the focus from blame and fear to structural solutions and opportunity.

Sleep-related infant deaths are often framed as matters of parental choice or individual behaviours, yet social determinants of health play a decisive role in shaping the conditions in which families care for infants. Factors such as income, housing stability, education, access to culturally safe health care, and systemic inequities influence whether families can consistently follow safe sleep recommendations. For example, overcrowded or unstable housing may limit access to a separate, safe sleep surface. Financial strain can make it difficult to obtain cribs or bassinets. Colonialism, racism and geographic isolation further compound risk. Experiences of racism create barriers to accessing prenatal and postnatal care as well as reduce opportunities for culturally relevant guidance about safe sleep. Systemic racism also takes the form of unfairly judging parents as being unable to properly care for their children, resulting in families being involved with the child welfare system and children being apprehended.

The Portage la Prairie School Division is upholding a decision to reject a family’s request for a religious exemption from activities related to Indigenous spirituality.

Sharon Sanders Zettler and Vince Zettler have spent the better part of the academic year seeking accommodations for their children at Yellowquill School.

“I have raised my kids in the Catholic faith from Day 1 and I am just looking for respect for that,” said Sanders Zettler, a mother of students enrolled in Grades 5 and 7 in Portage la Prairie.

Her husband echoed those comments while noting they are not interested in policing what other children learn.

In schools, February is widely known as “I Love to Read Month,” a dedicated celebration aimed at cultivating a love of reading.

Teachers and administrators have always been quick to jump on the latest bandwagon because they think that makes them good educators.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t because they often adopt strategies that are quickly proven to be wrong or worse proven to be detrimental to their students. If anyone dares to point out the lack of evidence for the use of the latest gimmick — ChatGPT in the classroom — they are discredited and told that they are not open to new ideas.

I am always skeptical of people like Sinead Bovell who came to speak to educators at the invitation of the Manitoba government at an “AI in education” summit. Her directive was to provide her predications about the future of technology in education. I did not attend this conference but based on what Maggie Macintosh reported in her Free Press article (Future students will be wired differently, thanks to AI, Jan. 16) Bovell told educators that they have to prepare for a future that will include technology in the classroom. The classrooms of today already have more than enough technology in them, so it appears what she was in fact promoting was the use of ChatGPT and other similar AI programs.

Bovell stated that no one knows what the future will look like and in that she is correct.