Video, photography, content-creation course puts focus on quality

Jeff Gordon operates JAG Videos and Photography, a Winnipeg production company specializing in commercial and corporate videos and professional headshots.

Un programme qui ouvre la voie

À 5 ans, Éléonore découvre la natation synchronisée… dans sa langue maternelle. Grâce à la détermination de sa mère et à l’engagement de deux jeunes entraîneuses francophones, un tout nouveau programme voit le jour au club Aquatica. Une petite victoire pour la francophonie et pour l’inclusion dans le sport.

Âgée de cinq ans, la petite Éléonore se rend à la pratique de natation artistique tous les mardis après-midi. Grâce à la détermination de sa mère et de ses entraineuses, elle apprend sa discipline dans sa langue maternelle, le français.

“Elle adore danser, elle adore la musique et l’eau,” nous dit sa maman, Geneviève Roy-Wsiaki. “Ça fait des années que je me dis qu’elle adorerait la nage synchronisée.”

Le choix de l’activité s’est donc imposé naturellement. Mais avant qu’Éléonore puisse se lancer à l’eau, il fallait régler un détail.

Harvest Manitoba expands weekend snack program in province

Thousands more children will get nutritious snacks to eat on weekends thanks to Harvest Manitoba.

Reconnecting with an old friend is a story of distance, loss and rediscovery

NEW YORK (AP) — When Jennifer Lea Austin met Molly in second grade, they quickly became best friends. They giggled through classes until the teacher separated them, inspiring them to come up with their own language. They shared sleepovers and went on each other's family vacations.

But they gradually drifted apart after Austin's family moved to Germany before the girls started high school. Decades passed before they recently reconnected as grown women.

“Strong friendships really do stay for the long haul," Austin, 51, said. "Even if there are pauses in between and they fade, that doesn’t mean they completely dissolve or they go forgotten. They’re always there kind of lingering like a little light in the back.”

Early friendships are some of the deepest: the schoolmates who shared bike rides and their favorite candy. The roommates who offered comfort after breakups. The ones who know us, sometimes better than we know ourselves.

Starting strong: building habits for great career, reputation in work world

Starting your first job is exciting and a little intimidating.

You’ve probably worked hard to get here through school, interviews and all the waiting that comes with trying to get a foot in the door. Now that you’re in, the next step is learning how to make the most of it.

What you do in these early months and years will shape your habits, reputation and the way people see you at work. It’s not just about doing your job well. It’s about learning how to show up, communicate and build relationships that make work easier and more rewarding for everyone involved.

The first and most important habit to develop is reliability. Employers and co-workers value someone they can count on more than almost anything else. Being reliable isn’t glamorous, but it’s powerful. Show up on time, meet deadlines and do what you say you will. If you realize you’re going to miss a deadline, let your supervisor know early and suggest a plan to get back on track.

Le pouvoir des rencontres

Depuis plusieurs années, Djehil Togoi, élève de 11e année au Collège Louis-Riel, s’investit dans le programme CanU, un projet caractérisé par ses offres de mentorat et son accompagnement éducatif destiné à soutenir la jeunesse manitobaine.

Pour Togoi, aussi appelé DJ, cette expérience est à la fois une occasion de créer des liens et de se rapprocher d’une communauté.

“Mon expérience CanU a été très enrichissante, explique-t-il. Chaque jour est une nouvelle expérience et chaque expérience m’apporte de nouveaux apprentissages. Je suis vraiment reconnaissant d’avoir découvert ce programme.”

Le 13 novembre, CanU organise le Gala Imagine Stories, une initiative annuelle visant à lever des fonds et à mettre à l’honneur la parole des jeunes. Comme l’explique Roger Berrington, fondateur de l’organisation, “ce gala permet aux élèves de raconter leur histoire mais aussi de montrer leur courage, et ces moments-là marquent leur vie et celle de ceux qui les entourent”. Cette année, l’événement se tiendra au Musée canadien pour les droits de la personne, un choix symbolique qui reflète les valeurs de l’organisation CanU.

Probe flags troubles in literacy education

Human rights investigators have found that parents of struggling readers across Manitoba are being forced to take on “a full-time job” of advocacy so their children can become literate in local public schools.

The Manitoba Human Rights Commission released the long-awaited findings of its probe into literacy 101 education on Thursday — the penultimate day of Dyslexia Awareness Month 2025.

The 70-page document reveals that many schools are not using evidence-based methods to teach reading and lengthy wait times for clinical assessments are affecting overall literacy rates.

The results are unsurprising for Laura Jones, a mother who volunteered at the launch event organized in partnership with Dyslexia Canada.

Trustees want say in school zone redesign

Trustees are calling on Winnipeg City Council to redesign 30 km/h school zones to better protect everyone who lives, learns and works in their wards — and they want a say in an infrastructure makeover.

For Ryan Palmquist, an active cyclist, dad and first-term trustee, road safety is both a passion and frequent source of frustration.

His son’s trek to École Varennes serves as a daily reminder of why he remains committed to the cause.

“My oldest son crosses a crosswalk — every single day, twice a day, to go to school — where a kid died,” the father of three said.

Dictionary.com’s word of the year is ‘6-7.’ But is it even a word and what does it mean?

Go ahead and roll your eyes. Shrug your shoulders. Or maybe just juggle your hands in the air.

Dictionary.com's word of the year isn't even really a word. It's the viral term “6-7” that kids and teenagers can't stop repeating and laughing about and parents and teachers can't make any sense of.

The word — if you can call it that — exploded in popularity over the summer. It's more of an inside joke with an unclear meaning, driven by social media.

Dictionary.com says its annual selection is a linguistic time capsule reflecting social trends and events. But the site admitted it too is a bit confused by “6-7.”

Schools work to fulfil promise afforded by new law supporting Indigenous language

‘Minawaanigoziwin” is the Ojibwa concept that comes to mind for Sherri Denysuik when the Winnipeg teacher is asked about her thoughts on a new law that raises the status of Indigenous languages in schools.

That term is roughly translated to “one who is happy and joyous.”

Denysuik, a member of Sagkeeng First Nation, is trying to learn words many of her ancestors were banned from speaking and, in many cases, punished for uttering inside a residential school.

Recent changes to Manitoba’s Public Schools Act are expected to make it easier for future generations to become fluent in Indigenous languages.

Introduction to Michif — one word at a time

Before the wolf can howl, Norman Fleury says a Michif word: Ooyoowuk.

“Ooyoowuk,” Fleury repeats. Or, in English, “howl.”

Ooyoowuk is one of 70 words articulated by Fleury with an animation and English translation to match — all bundled into digital flashcards.

A group of Métis entrepreneurs unveiled their Michif flashcards this week. They join a swelling movement to revitalize the Métis language, which combines languages such as Cree and French.

After summer evacuation, northern students ready to hit the books

Hundreds of young wildfire-evacuees will be reunited with their peers and teachers on Sept. 29 for a belated, albeit welcome, first day of school on familiar campuses across northern Manitoba.

Frontier School Division plans to officially launch 2025-26 in South Indian Lake, Leaf Rapids and Lynn Lake before the end of the month.

Chief superintendent Tyson MacGillivray said he and his colleagues are looking forward to “opening day,” following months of emergency management and uncertainty.

Approximately 450 students are currently unable to attend regular classes at West Lynn Heights School (Lynn Lake), Leaf Rapids Education Centre (Leaf Rapids) and Thunderbird School (South Indian Lake).

When self-doubt creeps in at work, pause and reframe your negative thoughts. Here’s how

NEW YORK (AP) — When we make mistakes at work, it can lead to a cycle of negative thinking.

The damaging thoughts swirl: “I’m an impostor.” “I’m not smart enough.” “I’m failing at my job.”

Feeling like an impostor — doubting one’s own abilities despite a track record of success — is common, especially among women and members of marginalized groups. Even on days when everything’s going right, it can be hard to shift out of a cycle of self-doubt.

But there are ways to interrupt that downward spiral.

Running down Terry Fox’s dream

In an era when today’s endurance feats seemingly defy human limits, his accomplishments still marvel.

In 1980, a curly-haired young man dipped a prosthetic right leg in the Atlantic Ocean in St. John’s, Nlfd., before embarking on a cross-country journey to raise money and awareness for cancer research.

With his signature hop-step running gait, Terry Fox, often only wearing grey shorts, a white cotton T-shirt with the words Marathon of Hope stencilled on the front, and blue adidas shoes, ran an average of 42 kilometres, or the equivalent of a full marathon, for 143 days. In total, he tallied 5,373 kilometres spanning six provinces.

His physical journey ended Sept. 1 of that year just shy of Thunder Bay when the cancer that had claimed his leg at age 18 had returned in his lungs. He died 10 months later, shortly before his 23rd birthday. However, his dream of raising millions of dollars for cancer research never faded.

400+ brands in 5+ years: Winnipeg-based digital marketing firm Mad Social Agency continues to evolve

Maddie Thompson was on a beach when she decided to drop out of school.

It was February 2022 and she was studying architecture at the University of Manitoba. While maintaining her spot on the dean’s honour list, Thompson was also running Mad Social Agency Ltd., the digital marketing firm she’d started two years earlier. She had enough business by that point she was hiring friends to help manage accounts.

Sitting on Locarno Beach in Vancouver, she realized it made sense to drop out and pursue the business full-time.

“My thought process was: I’m going to take a one-year leave of absence and see if I can make this work,” says Thompson, 23. “And I just never went back.”

Alberta government postpones release of revised school library book ban

EDMONTON - The Alberta government has postponed the release of its revised school library book ban to Monday.

The government had promised the new ministerial order for Friday afternoon, with a technical briefing for reporters set earlier in the day.

After the briefing was supposed to start, media were informed by email that it had been rescheduled.

“We are taking the time needed to ensure that the revised ministerial order is clear for all school boards," Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides later said in an email in response to questions about the postponement.

Girls fell behind boys in math during the pandemic. Schools are trying to make up lost ground

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Crowded around a workshop table, four girls at de Zavala Middle School puzzled over a Lego machine they had built. As they flashed a purple card in front of a light sensor, nothing happened.

The teacher at the Dallas-area school had emphasized that in the building process, there is no such thing as mistakes. Only iterations. So the girls dug back into the box of blocks and pulled out an orange card. They held it over the sensor and the machine kicked into motion.

“Oh! Oh, it reacts differently to different colors,” said sixth grader Sofia Cruz.

In de Zavala’s first year as a choice school focused on science, technology, engineering and math, the school recruited a sixth grade class that’s half girls. School leaders are hoping the girls will stick with STEM fields. In de Zavala’s higher grades — whose students joined before it was a STEM school — some elective STEM classes have just one girl enrolled.

Winnipeg elementary school shoots for moon with stuffie design

A stuffed animal designed by elementary schoolers in Winnipeg could be launched into outer space on NASA’s Artemis II mission.

How young content creators plan to balance their social media success and campus life

Growing up, Sofia DelGiudice never imagined her father’s annual back-to-school tradition would be a pivotal moment in her social media career.

Before starting university two years ago, the 19-year-old content creator from Toronto had the idea to stitch together all the videos her dad filmed of her descending the stairs in the family's home on the first day of school.

"It's the first day of what grade?" DelGiudice’s dad can be heard asking her in each clip recorded from kindergarten onward.

DelGiudice posted what she thought was a cute homage only her small TikTok following would see — and it went viral.

As AI becomes part of everyday life, it brings a hidden climate cost

Marissa Loewen first started using artificial intelligence in 2014 as a project management tool. She has autism and ADHD and said it helped immensely with organizing her thoughts.

“We try to use it conscientiously though because we do realize that there is an impact on the environment,” she said.

Her personal AI use isn't unique anymore. Now it’s a feature in smartphones, search engines, word processors and email services. Every time someone uses AI, it uses energy that is often generated by fossil fuels. That releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and contributes to climate change.

And it's getting harder to live without it.

Minnesota sues TikTok, alleging it preys on young people with addictive algorithms

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota on Tuesday joined a wave of states suing TikTok, alleging the social media giant preys on young people with addictive algorithms that trap them into becoming compulsive consumers of its short videos.

“This isn’t about free speech. I’m sure they’re gonna holler that," Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said at a news conference. "It’s actually about deception, manipulation, misrepresentation. This is about a company knowing the dangers, and the dangerous effects of its product, but making and taking no steps to mitigate those harms or inform users of the risks.”

The lawsuit, filed in state court, alleges that TikTok is violating Minnesota laws against deceptive trade practices and consumer fraud. It follows a flurry of lawsuits filed by more than a dozen states last year alleging the popular short-form video app is designed to be addictive to kids and harms their mental health. Minnesota's case brings the total to about 24 states, Ellison's office said.

Many of the earlier lawsuits stemmed from a nationwide investigation into TikTok launched in 2022 by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from 14 states into the effects of TikTok on young users’ mental health. Ellison, a Democrat, said Minnesota waited while it did its own investigation.

Wildfire smoke changing outdoor sports landscape

Air quality concerns due to wildfire smoke are changing the landscape of sporting events in Winnipeg. From community centre-run programs to professional leagues, outdoor sports have been impacted by smoke delays, cancellations and playing in less than ideal conditions, leading some to rethink how summer outdoor seasons should be planned going forward.

Krista Fraser-Kruck, general manager of Riverview Community Centre in South Osborne, which offers baseball, soccer, softball, ultimate (frisbee) and summer day camps, says wildfire smoke has forced cancellations and caused rescheduling challenges, especially difficult in a short summer season.

“The priority is keeping kids safe,” said Fraser-Kruck. “For our community, we just want to keep our kids safe, and so doing what’s in the best interest of their health is our priority.”

For their youth soccer games, Riverview Community Centre follows the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association’s policy, which calls for citywide cancellations if Environment Canada’s Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) reaches seven or higher.

Young swimmers look to make a splash at provincials

Young swimmers from across Manitoba and northwestern Ontario are racing against the clock Friday and Saturday at Pan Am Pool as over 260 athletes compete in the 2025 Manitoba Junior Swim Provincials, hoping to advance to the ManSask Championships in July.