Fausses histoires, vrais liens

Ce vendredi 1er mai, la finale de la 35e saison de la Ligue d’improvisation du Manitoba (LIM) a fait salle comble une fois de plus au Centre culturel franco-manitobain.

Pour la troisième année consécutive, c’est l’équipe des Verts — Roger Durand, Eric Plamondon, Gilles Lessard, Alexandre McMurray, Avery Wolchuk, Léanne Marchildon, Zara Ramlal — menée par Mathieu Jubinville, qui a soulevé la Coupe Canot après l’avoir emporté sur les Jaunes — Alexandre Normandeau, Dominique Wyrchowny, Jacques de Moissac, Josée Roy, Lynne Connelly, Stéphane Grégoire, Stéphanie Morin-Robert — de Maryse Gagné au terme d’un match très serré.

Pour celles et ceux qui ignorent en quoi consiste un match de LIM, imaginez deux équipes qui partagent une même scène et qui s’affrontent ou collaborent parfois sur un thème donné pour raconter l’histoire la plus drôle possible.

Mathieu Jubinville, capitaine de l’équipe gagnante, donne l’exemple suivant: surveillance de voisinage.

Courir New York … avec un inconnu

L’on sait l’amour que porte Robert Tétrault pour les défis.

Un triathlon à pieds nus, le World Marathon Challenge ou encore un semi-marathon dans des bureaux, le Franco-Manitobain a prouvé maintes fois qu’il aimait repousser ses limites.

Dans son combat pour la mise en place d’un dépistage universel du cytomégalovirus (CMV) chez le nouveau-né, le père de famille se rend de province en province pour courir des 527 kilomètres à raison d’un marathon par jour, pendant plusieurs jours.

Alors il paraît peut-être évident de la souligner, mais l’une des raisons pour laquelle Rob Tétrault continue de courir après tout ce temps, et bien c’est qu’il aime ça, la course à pied.

Phasing out of door-to-door mail delivery sinks in for Winnipeggers

Canada Post said Thursday it plans to convert about four million addresses to community mailboxes over the next five years, beginning with 136,000 in late 2026 and early 2027.

AI-driven app like a grain market ‘analyst in your pocket’

Mark Lepp grew up on a 5,000-acre grain farm near Elm Creek, but he never took to farming the way his father and two younger brothers did.

“I probably frustrated everyone around me,” he said. “The real art of farming — I was not that artist.”

That hasn’t stopped the entrepreneur from making a name for himself in agriculture. In 2004, he co-founded FarmLink Marketing Solutions, which pioneered the business of providing personalized marketing recommendations for Western Canadian farmers.

“I always liked the economics part (of farming),” Lepp said. “I liked the business part.”

AI content should be labelled, heritage committee says

OTTAWA - The government should require that content generated by artificial intelligence be clearly labelled, a House of Commons committee said in a new report.

The members of Parliament on the committee are calling for standardized labels for AI content that are visible and that the public can understand. They say the requirement should apply to all relevant sectors, including digital platforms and broadcasters.

This would "promote transparency, maintain public trust and preserve the integrity of Canada’s information and cultural ecosystem," the report said.

It called on the government to establish "a framework governing the systematic and easily identifiable labelling of content created with the assistance of artificial intelligence, including through the use of metadata, digital watermarks or other robust technical solutions."

U.S. leads spike in applications for Canadian citizenship by descent

OTTAWA - Interest in Canadian citizenship by descent among citizens in a handful of countries — especially the United States — surged after the federal government passed a new law clarifying the rules.

C-3, which took effect on Dec. 15, 2025, allows someone born outside Canada before that date to a Canadian parent who also was born outside Canada to file a citizenship claim. Anyone born or adopted on or after Dec. 15, 2025 can make a claim as long as the parent, who was also born or adopted abroad, spent at least three years in Canada before their child's birth or adoption.

The law was drafted and passed in response to a 2023 Ontario Superior Court order that found a law on citizenship by descent passed by Stephen Harper's government was unconstitutional.

That Harper-era law said Canadians who were born abroad could only pass down their citizenship if their children were born in Canada.

Why claims of sentience can’t guide black bear policy

The modern debate over sustainable-use bear hunting often hinges on a few claims including bears are sentient, therefore humans have no moral right to hunt them.

It’s a powerful emotional argument, but it collapses under scientific scrutiny and ecological reality. Sentience is real. Bears and other animals do feel.

But the leap from “animals feel” to “humans must never hunt” is not supported by biology, ethics or conservation science. If we want wildlife policy that protects species and ecosystems, we need to separate what sentience is from what animal rights activists want it to mean.

In scientific terms, sentience refers to the capacity to feel or perceive, not the ability to make moral judgments.

New dance work explores life’s tensions

The pressures of modern life have a way of piling up.

Piles of work. Piles of debt. Piles of laundry. Piles of information and memes and media to parse. Piles of expectations. Piles of physical stuff added to cart during late-night shopping binges because we think it’ll make the piles of stress and worry (about the cost of groceries, about war, about aging parents) easier to manage, lighter to carry.

We become surrounded by these metaphorical and literal piles until, one day, it all becomes too much.

Accumulation, a new work choreographed by artistic director Jolene Bailie that will close Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers’ 2025/26 season, lives in the tension before the breaking point.

Meet neffy: Health Canada approves epinephrine nasal spray for anaphylaxis

TORONTO - Health Canada has approved the first needle-free epinephrine treatment for severe allergic reactions: a nasal spray called neffy.

ALK Canada, which purchased the rights to distribute the drug, says the two-milligram treatment could be on the market as soon as this summer.

The drug was approved for adults and pediatric patients who weigh at least 30 kilograms, which is roughly 66 pounds. A one-milligram dose has been approved in the United States for kids between 15 and 30 kilograms, but not in Canada.

As it stands, epinephrine auto-injectors — a single-use pre-filled device known by the brand name EpiPen — are the only emergency treatment option available for allergic reactions.

Walmart is repackaging its Great Value brand to reflect changing consumer habits

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart is redesigning the packaging of its Great Value products to help customers instantly spot whether a bag of spicy chips is gluten-free or how much protein is packed into a serving of chicken nuggets.

Encompassing 10,000 different products, Great Value is Walmart's biggest store brand and one of the largest food and consumer packaged goods labels in the U.S. The revamp announced Wednesday comes as shoppers have increasingly treated private-label foods not as a stepdown from national brands, but more as an equivalent.

The new cartons, boxes, bags and other containers will start to appear on Walmart store shelves next month, said Scott Morris, senior vice president of Walmart’s U.S. private brands division. The overhaul does not involve any changes to the products themselves, he said.

The updates include images that are intended to make the product inside more tempting to shoppers. For example, a Great Value frozen lasagna will show a the pasta garnished with a basil leaf, served on a full plate and displayed on a red checkered tablecloth against a red background, according to Walmart executives. The current box features the lasagna against a white background.

Holocaust survivors, family members mark solemn day by remembering not to forget

Rob Berkowits carries a black and white photo in his wallet — of his father, Alex, and fellow prisoners in a Nazi Germany concentration camp — as a constant reminder the challenges in his life are small.

Province boosts CFS funding by $29M

The Manitoba government has earmarked an additional $29.2 million to bolster supports for children, youth and families in the child welfare system, but critics say it isn’t enough.

From chants on trams to a parliament rave, young Hungarians provided a soundtrack for Orbán’s defeat

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Many of the young Hungarians who came of age during Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power have never known life outside his political system. Yet it was they that were at the forefront of Sunday's earthquake election that ejected him from office.

As hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate the historic win by pro-European candidate Péter Magyar, music from some of Hungary's most popular — and most Orbán-critical — performers filled the air. Teenagers scaled Budapest’s iconic Chain Bridge and blasted revolutionary anthems by artists whose songs captured young people’s frustrations with the regime.

On the city’s trams, buses and subway cars, young people led chants and played AI-generated fan music dedicated to Magyar.

In front of Hungary's neo-Gothic parliament building, a group called “More Techno to Parliament!” celebrated Orbán's defeat with a rave.

Crop-enhancement firm eyes potato prosperity

Of all the research labs in all the cities in all the world, Kinneret Shefer walks into St. Boniface Hospital’s.

The researcher and entrepreneur is the co-founder of GeneNeer Ltd., an agricultural biotechnology company from Israel. Earlier this year, the company established its North American operations at the Albrechtsen Research Centre in the central Winnipeg hospital.

“We moved to Canada because our technology developed, we are moving to implementation and we have some business agreements in negotiation,” said Shefer, who holds a PhD in genetic counselling from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

GeneNeer launched its Canadian operations in January. The company converted laboratory facilities at the research centre and had them operating within two weeks, allowing research activities to begin almost immediately.

Manitoba students’ science projects aimed at eye health, wildfire prevention take top marks

More than 350 students in grades 4 to 12 took part in MSSS, the province’s largest annual science event, at the University of Manitoba.

‘It’s been a lot of fun for me’: Jets’ Vilardi honoured by team nomination for humanitarian award

Gabe Vilardi learned plenty of valuable lessons as a child, ones that continue to guide him to this day.

Liberals adopt policy to restrict kids from social media

MONTREAL - Federal Liberals voted in favour of setting 16 as the age of majority for Canadians to be able to use social media accounts.

Party grassroots passed a non-binding resolution Saturday morning for the restriction and to place the onus on social media companies to enforce it.

Quebec MP Rachel Bendayan, who presented the idea to her caucus and championed it at the convention, said prolonged social media use can be harmful to the mental health of young Canadians.

She said social media companies need to be more accountable and stop allowing young children to use technologies designed to be addictive.

‘Furry face to greet them:’ How facility dogs help victims navigate Manitoba’s court system

WINNIPEG - Tucked in a quiet corner on the fourth floor of Winnipeg's law courts building is a spacious room filled with vibrant toys, children's books and leather couches.

It’s a stark contrast to the cold marble and ornate, wooden fixtures that make up the rest of the building.

It's where four-legged Glossy spends a lot of her working days comforting children going through the judicial system.

The five-year-old Labrador retriever with milk chocolate-coloured eyes and a shiny black coat to match her name, is one of two accredited facility dogs that support victims of crime or their families by lending a sympathetic paw.

Moon mission Earth photo could change your worldview

Having a photo of Earth — the whole Earth — taken by a human is an incredible thing, and now we have a new one. It’s a beautiful image. But it’s also a deeply moving one.

Le destin renversé du 261 rue Youville

À défaut d’obtenir des excuses officielles de la part du gouvernement pour la loi Thornton de 1916, ou même l’ensemble des lois et politiques assimilatrices qui ont été en vigueur dans la province pendant des décennies, les jeunes franco-manitobains qui ont posé sur papier leur interrogation dans notre édition du 11 au 17 mars 2026 souriront peut-être à la lecture de ce papier.

L’on apprenait au début du mois de mars 2026 que la Division scolaire franco-manitobaine ouvrirait sa 26e école à Saint-Boniface.

Au 261 rue Youville, ce sont les murs de l’école confessionnelle Springs Christian Academy qui appartiennent désormais à la DSFM.

En réalité, l’établissement est l’un des plus anciens bâtiments scolaires publics de Saint-Boniface. Fermé en 1989 en raison d’une baisse du nombre d’inscriptions, elle n’a rouvert ses portes sous le nom de Springs Christian Academy qu’en 1991.

Hand-drawn 1884 map captures Winnipeg at moment when frontier hadn’t fully given way to a metropolis

At first glance, the map is still. Ink on paper, streets drawn neatly in place, buildings rendered by a careful hand. Look more closely and it begins to loosen. Step into the image, between the lines, and immerse yourself in a city of movement.

Liberals set to debate age restrictions for social media

MONTREAL - Liberal party members will soon grapple with the question of whether children and young teens should be barred from accessing social media accounts for platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and YouTube.

The policy resolution is expected to hit the floor at the Liberal party policy convention in Montreal for debate and a vote on Saturday.

Jonathan Nuss, the head of the Outremont Liberal riding association, is one of the main proponents of a resolution calling on the party to ensure social media platforms limit user accounts to Canadians aged 16 and older.

The Montreal lawyer and father of two young children said he wants this resolution to kick-start a national debate on addictive technologies and the harmful effects social media can have on young children — a debate that's already happening among parents across the country.