New tour firm seeks to display ‘hidden gem’

Desiree Rantala has serious Manitoba bona fides.

The 34-year-old grew up in two northern First Nations communities and has lived in Gimli and Dauphin. She’s worked in marketing roles at the Manitoba Museum, Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone and Travel Manitoba, and she’s travelled to New York and Vancouver to promote the province.

Now, Rantala has launched a tour company called Toba Tripper.

“We’re a hidden gem that has so much to offer,” the Winnipeg resident said. “We have so much to see and I really hope that people leave my tours appreciating the beauty of Manitoba a little bit more.”

Orange Shirt Day project fits students to a tee

On the eve of Orange Shirt Day, hundreds of black T-shirts will be handed out to teenagers at Elmwood High School — and there wasn’t a mixup in the clothing procurement process.

The student-run business behind the initiative wanted to make a statement about “truth and reconciliation” being a year-round activity, said Daniel Concepcion, a Grade 12 student.

Daniel said given that black is a staple in the wardrobe of teenagers, he hopes these shirts won’t sit on hangers for 364 days of the year.

“Every child matters, every part of the day, every day,” the 17-year-old said.

Museum warehouse holds the history of electrical power in Manitoba

The work it takes to bring any endeavour to light is rarely, if ever, seen by those who look upon the final result — be that a creative work such as a feature film or a museum display.

Since 2001, the Manitoba Electrical Museum and Education Centre, located at 680 Harrow St., has provided thousands of visitors with a century’s worth of history on electrical power in Manitoba.

“Everyone who comes in here is amazed at how much we can pack into such a small space,” says executive director Beryth Strong, who took on the role last November.

The museum is open to the public Tuesday to Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. and hosts large groups of students throughout the school year. While the museum itself boasts numerous displays featuring approximately 220 electrical artifacts, including household appliances, computers, telephones, technical gear and much more, along with a collection of nearly 20,000 photos documenting major electrical construction projects, its warehouse just south of McGillivray Boulevard houses thousands more unique items.

Local Muslims, Indigenous people hold interfaith event

Bannock with wild rice and samosas with halal beef stew were served in equal measure as Indigenous and Muslim Winnipeggers sought common ground at an interfaith event discussing truth and reconciliation Sunday.

The Islamic Social Services Association’s second annual Muslim-Indigenous Solidarity event recognized Orange Shirt Day through conversations with elders, shared prayers and crafting.

Organizer Shahina Siddiqui said many of the people attending the gathering, held at Canadian Mennonite University, share the traumatic impacts of colonialism.

Siddiqui said she herself had attended a Catholic day school in her home country of Pakistan, where she and other students were forced to speak English, and were hurt if they didn’t. Many Muslim-majority countries, she said, have been harmed by colonialism.

Province invests $3.8M in culinary arts training facility for francophone high school students

A new dedicated culinary arts training facility will give francophone high school students a place to learn the trade in French.

Students from France visit Winnipeg to learn about soldiers who helped liberate their country

Travelling nearly 7,000 km from his home in France to Winnipeg gave Gabriel Zaranski a new perspective on warfare.

“It’s very different to speak about war in school (than) to speak with real people who (have fought) in a war,” he said. “We can feel the emotion when they speak … The testimony has more impact when it’s real soldiers.”

Zaranski is one of 14 Grade 12 students from Bayeux, a town in France’s Normandy region, in Winnipeg this week for a learning tour.

The students, who attend Lycée Arcisse de Caumont high school, met on Saturday with veterans from the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada, a local military regiment, to discuss their studies and the regiment’s role in the Second World War.

Gordon Bell students relish — ‘of all things’ — new pickleball courts

Manitoba’s newest public school sports facility is bringing the pickleball craze to an inner-city campus.

Gordon Bell High School unveiled four custom-made courts for the popular paddle sport this fall as part of a multi-faceted makeover.

Grade 12 student Matea Thiessen Unger called the courts “the cherry on top,” of a multi-year construction project that consumed much of her high school career.

“It was happening for so long — it felt like it was never going to end,” the 16-year-old said.

WSO kicks off season pairing Beethoven, Tchaikovsky

French fries and milkshake, watermelon and feta cheese … Beethoven’s Fifth and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth?

Few events mark the beginning of the classical concert season like the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s season-opener and this year they kick things off with an unusual but satisfying pairing.

“I think that for me, the combination of these two pieces is, first of all, a celebration of great masterworks that have withstood 100 years of being probed by time for their relevancy,” says conductor Daniel Raiskin, the WSO’s music director. “It’s the quality of music, it’s the quality of narrative that attracts us to these masterworks again and again.”

Both symphonies are so hefty and canonical, one might have expected half of the concert would be devoted to a concerto, tone poem or something smaller or lesser known.

An aim to bring everyone together

Imagine a world where people work together to celebrate differences, learn from each other, build empathy and understanding.

A world where connection replaces division and gives every person a place to discover their gifts and strengths, so they can thrive.

That’s exactly what AIM 4 ALL is doing, giving individuals with and without disabilities a space to collaborate and create art as equals on the stage.

The goal of the new musical theatre company is to produce fully inclusive productions and give performance opportunities to their ensemble throughout the training season. By fostering a safe, creative, and diverse environment, AIM 4 ALL empowers participants of all abilities to share their talents and flourish together.

Burger buffs translate patty epiphany into flat-out success

Île-des-Chênes — Who can forget the scene from the 1994 crime film Pulp Fiction where Vincent Vega, played by John Travolta, informs his hitman counterpart Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) that owing to the metric system, people in France refer to a McDonald’s Quarter-Pounder as a “royale with cheese.”

That causes Winnfield to openly wonder what the French term is for a Big Mac.

“Big Mac’s a Big Mac, but they call it ‘le Big Mac,’” Vega responds.

The reason we bring up that cinematic exchange is because this hockey season, the married couple behind Duke’s Burger Co., a hard-to-miss, yellow-and-orange food trailer that from May to August operates along Highway 59 near Niverville, will be in charge of the canteen at Île-des-Chênes Arena, home of the South Eastern Manitoba Hockey League’s Île-des-Chênes North Stars. Given the fact Île-des-Chênes is a historically francophone community, we asked Duke’s owners Josh and Amanda Darlington if there is a French equivalent for smash burgers, their signature dish.

Gillingham outlines big plan for Seine River in a second term as mayor

Scott Gillingham promises to turn the Seine River into a permanent recreation and nature attraction, if re-elected as mayor.

At a riverside campaign announcement Friday, Gillingham said a long-term plan would be to create Rivière-Seine Historic Municipal Riverway encompassing the entire Winnipeg section of the Seine, building on past volunteer efforts to clean up the river and make it a paddle-friendly attraction.

The Seine, which winds through St. Boniface and St. Vital, originates in the Sandilands Provincial Forest, passes through southeastern Manitoba, crosses the Red River Floodway and joins the Red River in St. Boniface just north of The Forks.

“What we want to do, really, is to establish the permanence of this river and allow its beauty and the opportunity to enjoy it, to be something that we don’t just leave to volunteers alone, but come together and focus on establishing it as, really, a place that gets focused attention and investment,” said Gillingham.

Restaurants ‘under pressure’

Happy hour outings are on Jackie Piggott’s calendar — but even those are fewer.

She and her husband might visit a restaurant once a month. It’s a change over the past year: earlier, they might go twice, thrice or weekly.

“It’s something that we’ve talked about, my husband and myself, just because the pricing is so expensive,” Piggott said, stopping during a grocery run in St. Vital. “It’s also better for our health.”

She’s in the majority: a new Restaurants Canada report found 80 per cent of Canadians are eating out less frequently because of higher living costs, up from 75 per cent in 2025.

MPs split on whether AI should be used in House of Commons

OTTAWA - Members of Parliament are split on whether — and how — artificial intelligence should be used by lawmakers following a report that said the technology is being used to write a significant amount of what MPs say in the House of Commons.

The Economist reported this week that as much as 20 per cent of what was said on the floor of the House of Commons in late 2025 was flagged as AI-generated.

The publication studied comments, speeches and questions from MPs of more than 100 words, as recorded in Hansard, and ran them through the AI detector tool Pangram.

It compared the results from different countries, including legislatures in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, and found Canada had the second-highest rate of AI use.

Austrian yodelers take their voices underground, turning a parking garage into the Alps

GRAZ, Austria (AP) — No mountains to practice on? No problem. Yodeling fans in Austria have moved their practice sessions to an underground parking garage, since it produces echoes like those they can get in the landscapes of the Alps.

“It’s not too dissimilar to the high mountains," said yodeling teacher Anna Maria Gutschi as she led a group of 30 through an empty parking garage earlier this week. "You have wide hallways; you have walls that reflect a lot.”

Gutschi works for the Styrian Volksliedwerk, a cultural organization promoting traditional folk music in the southeastern Austrian city of Graz — which is not in the high mountains, but sits in a flat basin surrounded by hills and low mountain ranges at the edge of the Alps.

The group has been holding a series of courses on yodeling in unusual places to keep the tradition alive in modern times. Whether it is an underground car park, a canal or a gas station — as long as the acoustics work, up to 30 people are allowed to join each time for a unique experience.

Concrete doc befits brutalist Winnipeg

Moviegoers across North America are pounding the pavement and lining up around the block to see The History of Concrete, small-screen documentarian John Wilson’s feature-length debut.

Fire up the grills! Thousands of South Africans try to set a record for the biggest cookout

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Armed with their tongs and sausages, thousands of determined — and hungry — South Africans gathered on a national holiday Thursday to attempt to break the world record for the biggest cookout.

The record to beat for most people grilling simultaneously was 2,220, set in Japan's Ishigaki City in 2023.

The South African hopefuls, who were denied in a failed attempt last year, poured into a sports stadium in the capital, Pretoria, to take up their positions around 500 grilling stations. Organizers said they expected around 3,000 participants.

The strict rules, according to a Guinness World Records adjudicator who watched over the attempt, were: Everyone needs to be barbecuing simultaneously for a minimum of five minutes to be counted.

Seven Oaks tour blends ghastly theatrics and local history

History buffs and ghostbusters will be exploring one of Winnipeg’s oldest homes and grounds by candlelight this weekend.

“Spirits of Seven Oaks brings together two things already woven into the place: history and haunting. You’re not just going to hear history, you get to walk through it,” says Tracey Turner, curator and manager of Seven Oaks House Museum.

For more than a decade the national historic site has hosted similar events during the early autumn lead up to Halloween. In the past, the first half, which takes place in rooms throughout Seven Oaks House — the oldest standing home in Winnipeg — were led by a museum interpreter, while the outside portion is led by Matthew Komus, author of Haunted Winnipeg and Haunted Manitoba.

“With ghost stories, I’ve always been interested in tying it to the place,” says Komus, whose book Haunted Winnipeg is now in its ninth printing. “It’s part of who we are. That’s something that we really focus on. Most of the stories we talk about, it’s about a rural settlement. We’re on the estate, though a lot of it is a neighbour.”

City of Ottawa to rename Trump Avenue as trade war continues

OTTAWA - A residential street in Ottawa bearing the last name of U.S. President Donald Trump will be given a new monniker after the city council voted in favour of a motion to start the renaming process.

Coun. Riley Brockington introduced a motion that was carried Wednesday to rename Trump Avenue, in Ottawa's Central Park neighbourhood.

The area, just southwest of the city's core, was developed in the 1990s and 2000s with a New York City theme, and multiple streets pay homage to the city with names like Central Park Drive, Staten Way and Grammercy Park.

"Since I came to office, there have been a number of requests from Trump Avenue residents, residents within Central Park and across our city and frankly beyond that would like to see the City of Ottawa engage in a street renaming process," he said Wednesday.

Oxford English Dictionary adds several words long used in the Caribbean and Bermuda

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — More than a dozen words long used in Bermuda and across the Caribbean got an official nod on Wednesday from the Oxford English Dictionary.

First in line is “bimpert,” a Bermudian word of unknown origin that is used to describe a stupid or foolish person. People on the tiny island in the north Atlantic often use it in this traditional phrase: “A bimpert is justah wuffless bye,” which roughly translates to: an idiot is just a worthless boy.

Another colorful addition is “hornerman,” a word used in the eastern Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago since 1975 to describe an unfaithful man or a man having a relationship with someone else's partner.

Leonard Alexander, a grocery store owner in Trinidad, chuckled at the inclusion of the word “hornerman.” He explained that to “horn” means being unfaithful, and now the world would know the term for a man who commits such an act.

Decorated business vet Spiring announced as NSL Winnipeg president

Manitoba’s own Dayna Spiring is no stranger to the sports world, but her latest venture into the world of football — this time of the kick-about variety — is a whole new ball game.

“I’m getting up to speed on that as quickly as I can,” Spiring told the Free Press Tuesday, shortly after the accomplished business leader was announced as Northern Super League Winnipeg’s president.

Spiring joins an already stacked roster on the first women’s professional sports team in the Keystone province alongside the likes of NSL Winnipeg’s decorated co-founders Desiree Scott and Rob Gale.

And her own stats sheet is just as historic. Spiring was one of the first women to serve on the CFL’s Board of Governors and was the first woman to serve as chair of the Winnipeg Football Club’s board of directors. She is also the first woman to have her name engraved on the Grey Cup when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers captured back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2021.

Winnipeg artist’s solo exhibition invites viewers on a disorienting, rewarding journey

Ryan Smoluk’s Maze City, on now at WAG-Qaumajuq, is a full circle moment.

Thief steals almost $70K in Pokémon cards from flea-market owner

The owner of a local flea market was left feeling disrespected and in disbelief after roughly $70,000 worth of Pokémon products were stolen over the weekend, but is vowing to rebuild.

Kenan Hyseni, who has owned and operated the popular Mulvey Market in South Osborne since 2022, said high-end sealed products and valuable individual cards from the massively popular collectible card game were stolen sometime between the market’s closing Friday night and midnight.

Hyseni believes someone hid inside the market until employees had left for the night, loaded up the merchandise and fled.

“The night finished, we locked up, did the usual thing, and then we went home and just before midnight, I got a call from the landlord and they said the alarm had been tripped, and that someone was seen leaving the market with bags,” Hyseni said.

‘We’re small, but we’re strong and mighty’: Lögberg-Heimskringla newspaper celebrates 140 years in Manitoba

A “friend” of the Icelandic community is now 140 years old.

Lögberg-Heimskringla, a Winnipeg-based newspaper that serves the Icelandic diaspora throughout North America, has published continuously for nearly a century-and-a-half. Staff and supporters celebrated the anniversary Saturday afternoon during a gathering at the Scandinavian Cultural Centre.

“Whatever else it may be, Lögberg-Heimskringla is a friend in print — a familiar cultural institution that has enriched our lives and understanding, informing us and entertaining us at the same time,” editor Stefan Jonasson wrote in the paper’s anniversary issue, published on Sept. 15.

“It has served as a vessel to convey the Icelandic culture and heritage in North America through the course of several generations and changing circumstances, preserving memories from the past, imagining what lies ahead and reinventing itself along the way.”

CMU instructor uses camper audio studio to capture stories of human connection in a time of isolation, alienation

GRUNTHAL — Last Sunday, David Balzer parked his vintage 1978 Triple E Surfside camper trailer on a church lot in town and, like an itinerant priest with a mobile confessional, prepared to hear people’s stories.

It was a crisp sunny morning. Inside the trailer were a pair of yellow mugs that matched the trailer’s egg yolk trim. On a table were two microphones.

Outside the trailer stood a sandwich board with an invitation: “Step in.”

Balzer doesn’t actually hear confessions, but he does perform what some might consider a priestly duty: helping people share their stories.