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.

Fireworks crackdown might be in Winnipeg’s future

A plan to crack down on some fireworks displays could be considered next year, amid concerns that many are done illegally.

“There are more fireworks complaints than permits issued for fireworks, leading to an understanding that many fireworks that generate complaints are set off illegally,” writes Lisa Gilmour, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service’s assistant chief of community risk reduction, in a new report.

WFPS received 306 calls about fireworks last year, while 144 consumer and professional permits were approved to set them off.

In Winnipeg, people who set off fireworks without a permit can presently be fined up to $500. To legally use fireworks, individuals must obtain the permit, be at least 18 years old and set off the devices at least 100 feet (30 metres) away from all buildings and trees.

Motorboats to return to Clear Lake this summer

Motorboats will be allowed to return to Clear Lake this summer, a year after they were banned amid the discovery of invasive species.

Parks Canada officials said Wednesday watercraft inside the Riding Mountain National Park lake would be permitted under a mandatory tagging program and several other conditions.

“We’re pleased, but we also want to see how it will be implemented,” said Trevor Boquist, spokesperson for the Fairness for Clear Lake advocacy group.

“I would say we want to be part of the conversation of how this will be implemented.”

A project to save rural synagogues grows from Maine to Montana

WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) — Rabbi Rachel Isaacs spent the days leading up to Passover overseeing the preparation of ceremonial foods at Beth Israel Congregation, a synagogue in central Maine where membership has quadrupled over the last 15 years.

These days, growing congregations is very much on Isaacs' mind, as she's leading a movement to strengthen rural synagogues and Jewish communities around the country. They've reached dozens, and they're hoping for many more.

“Rural Jewish life is important for the Jewish people and it’s important for rural America,” Isaacs said. “Those people deserve to be served and shepherded.”

Isaacs is executive director of the Center for Small Town Jewish Life at Colby College, a liberal arts school in Waterville, Maine. The center began a decade ago with a goal of supporting Jewish congregations that are far from big cities and it has grown to run programs for more than 60 communities in 22 states.

Home gardeners have new way to share bumper crops

Planning a prolific pumpkin patch? A new free online resource lets Winnipeggers list vegetables they’re planning to grow this summer that they will either sell, barter or give away in the fall.

Artemis II astronauts make long-distance call to the space station as they head home from the moon

HOUSTON (AP) — Still aglow from their triumphant lunar flyby, the Artemis II astronauts made more history Tuesday: calling their friends aboard the International Space Station hundreds of thousands of miles away as they headed home from the moon.

It was the first moonship-to-spaceship radio linkup ever. NASA's Apollo crews had no off-the-planet company back in the 1960s and 1970s, the last time humanity set sail for deep space.

"We have been waiting for this like you can’t imagine,” Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman called out.

For Christina Koch on Artemis II and Jessica Meir aboard the space station, it marked a joyous space reunion despite being 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) apart. The two teamed up for the world's first all-female spacewalk in 2019 outside the orbiting lab.

Feds, city, province join forces with First Nation to build 150 apartments in St. James

More than a century after its lake became the source of Winnipeg’s drinking water, Shoal Lake 40 First Nation is leading a major housing development in the city, backed by more than $51 million in government funding.

The federal government announced the combined funding Tuesday to build 150 apartment units at 2675 Portage Ave. in the city’s St. James neighbourhood. The development will include one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

Shoal Lake 40 Chief Herb Greene said the project carries historical significance.

“This development is about three things: history, teamwork, and the future,” Greene said during a sod-turning ceremony Tuesday. He noted for more than 100 years, Winnipeg was in dire need of a reliable source of clean drinking water.

In pictures: Artemis II crew captures eclipse, Earthrise, far side of moon during lunar flyby

NASA released new photos Tuesday captured by the Artemis II astronauts.

Artemis II’s lunar fly-around and intense observation period lasted seven hours.

A total solar eclipse greeted the three Americans and one Canadian as the moon temporarily blocked the sun from their perspective.

Venturing as close as 4,067 miles (6,545 kilometers) to the gray dusty surface, the astronauts zipped through a list of more than two dozen photo targets, using powerful Nikon cameras as well as their iPhones to zoom in on impact craters and other intriguing lunar features.

Artemis II astronauts channel Apollo 8 with a striking Earthset photo

HOUSTON (AP) — The Artemis II astronauts are now forever intertwined with Apollo 8.

A day after the historic lunar flyaround, NASA on Tuesday released striking new photos taken by the U.S.-Canadian crew.

The four astronauts channeled Apollo 8’s famous Earthrise shot from 1968 with their own: Earthset, showing our planet setting behind the gray, pockmarked moon. Another photo captures the total solar eclipse that occurred when the moon blocked the sun from the crew’s perspective.

The three Americans and one Canadian are now headed home, with a splashdown in the Pacific set for Friday. In the meantime, scientists at Houston's Mission Control are poring over the stream of moon photos beaming down.

Parents charged after toddler slips into wolf area and gets hurt at Hersheypark zoo

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The parents of a toddler who suffered a minor injury at a Pennsylvania theme park zoo after squeezing through a fence near a wolf enclosure and making contact with one of the animals have been charged with endangering the welfare of children, police said.

Evidence showed that the parents both walked about 25 to 30 feet (about 8 to 9 meters) away from the child to a seating area with benches and appeared to be paying attention to their cellphones when they noticed what was happening shortly before noon Saturday at ZooAmerica in the Hersheypark theme park, police said in a statement.

The child went through a small opening in a wooden barrier perimeter fence and entered a restricted area near the wolf exhibit, Derry Township Police said. The child reached a chain-link fence enclosure and was hurt after placing a hand through it.

“From the injuries sustained, it appears as though one of the wolves in the enclosure instinctively and naturally grabbed onto the child’s hand with its mouth. Several bystanders intervened and helped pull the child away,” police said in the statement.

Energy-hungry Nova Scotia companies nearly doubled their solar power capacity in 2025

HALIFAX - Energy-hungry companies in Nova Scotia are heading toward the light.

New statistics from the province's private power utility show that commercial-scale players — which includes municipalities and First Nations — grew their capacity to generate solar energy by 82 per cent last year.

Energy consultant David Brushett says that’s partly because legislative changes a few years ago have allowed companies to install solar systems 10 times larger than before. The “net-metering” system gives firms a credit on their power bills for the electricity they generate, offsetting their own usage. Even with the new rules, they are not allowed to generate more power than their operations consume.

The program allows solar projects of up to one megawatt for commercial customers. Brushett says that size makes more financial sense. “So that allowed much larger installations,” Brushett said in an interview.

Caring for native flowers and grasses helps former adult educator find ‘hope and joy in a dark time in the world’

After a career guiding newcomers through the logistics of life in Winnipeg, from registering with a family doctor to figuring out the transit system, Gerry Pearson turned her sights toward helping the city’s native plants settle back into place.

Tale of flight stuck on ‘freezing Canadian island’ gets warm laughs in Newfoundland

ST. JOHN'S - Newfoundlanders were having a chuckle on Monday over international media reports saying passengers on a British Airways flight diverted to St. John's last week were stranded on a frozen island somewhere in Canada.

Headlines describing Newfoundland as a "freezing island" had people cracking jokes and sharing weather statistics on social media. A spoof video on Reddit collected upvotes for its David Attenborough-style tale of marooned passengers scrounging for food and Wi-Fi signals in the capital city of more than 200,000 people.

It certainly wasn't easy for many of the 255 passengers who were grounded for two nights in Newfoundland and Labrador's capital city, Heather McKinnon, general manager at the Delta Hotel in St. John's, said Monday. They had no access to their luggage when a storm blew in and some spoke of missing funerals and weddings, she said in an interview.

But McKinnon said she hopes most know that Newfoundland is not a frozen wasteland, as the headlines appeared to suggest.

Tailors age out of the workforce even as demand for their skills grows

NEW YORK (AP) — Hunched over a sewing machine, Kil Bae is hemming a dress inside his Manhattan tailor shop when a new customer stops by with a vintage Tommy Hilfiger jacket he wants taken in.

The modeling agent paid $20 at a thrift store for his reversible bomber style that's plaid on one side and red on the other. He's willing to spend $280 to have it slimmed down. Alteration requests with such a price disparity would have seemed odd a few years ago, the tailor says, but are helping to keep the bobbins bobbing at his one-man shop, 85 Custom Tailor.

Bae carefully examines the cotton jacket before moving in to pin it, circling the customer like a sculptor with a chisel. He started training as a tailor at age 17, in his native South Korea. Now 63, he's part of a shrinking breed in the U.S., where professional sewers, dressmakers and tailors are aging out of the workforce as their services find fresh demand.

Shoppers who grew up on disposable fast fashion are enlisting tailors and seamstresses to give off-the-rack purchases a custom fit or personal flair, to revive secondhand finds or to extend the lives of their wardrobes, according to fashion industry experts. Weight-loss drugs like Zepbound and Wegovy mean more Americans are seeking adjusted waistbands, tapered sleeves and other types of resizing, Bae said.

Burdett Sisler, Canada’s oldest known living man, Second World War vet, dead at 110

Burdett Sisler, the oldest known living man in Canada and one of the oldest Second World War veterans in the world has died. He was 110.

Sisler’s son Norman says his father died with family members by his side after his health took a turn for the worse in recent weeks.

“It's bittersweet. You don't want to see him go, of course. But he had a long life,” Norman said. “It was a great life.”

A statement from Gov. Gen. Mary Simon's office says she and her husband were saddened to learn of Sisler's death and are sending condolences to his friends and family.

Papiiro opens doors, journals in Village

At Papiiro, the fine arts of stationery design, decoration and curation are taken to another level.

The 109 Osborne St. shop’s offerings range from basic pens and notebooks to the hyper-niche tools of a journaler’s dreams — stickers of all sizes of anything you can think of, colourful clamps to hold down papers down while you work, even posture-correcting stuffed animals to lean against to stop hunching while you work.

But owner Cay Iledan’s favourite thing is simple: a customizable multi-pen that can be filled in-store with different ink colours and even mechanical pencil graphite. It’s a range of options all in one spot, much like the store itself, which has stocked imported stationery from Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines since it opened one month ago.

“It’s things that we don’t often see in Winnipeg, we often see stationery shops that carry what we have in bigger cities like Toronto or Vancouver. It’s just giving the people in Winnipeg a lot more options in terms of stationery, not just only from Staples or from (Canada-wide chain Japanese goods store) Oomomo or something like that,” Iledan, 39, said Thursday.

Baby black bears orphaned after mother killed

Manitoba Conservation is investigating the killing of a mother bear who was illegally shot this week.

The location of a bear’s den north of Balmoral was posted to social media a few weeks ago, according to Judy Stearns, who co-owns Black Bear Rescue Manitoba with her husband.

Stearns warned the online audience not to disclose the co-ordinates out of fear something bad could happen.

“I did a post on our Facebook page to get the word out that people shouldn’t be doing this,” she said Wednesday.

Dachshund playgroup completes a social circle

It’s just before 7 p.m. on a sunny Tuesday evening in March, and dachshunds are descending upon Earl Grey Community Centre from every direction, straining at their leashes to get inside.

These pups know what’s up. It’s time for the wiener dog play group.

You can hear the excited barking before you step foot in the gym. About 20 dogs are here tonight. The majority are dachshunds in a variety of colours and sizes, but the group is not wiener-dog exclusive: a Pomeranian and a couple of Shih Tzus are playing, too.

One of the regular pups, Zeus, is celebrating a birthday tonight. It’s clear he’s ready to “pawty”; he has a Birthday Boy ribbon affixed to his harness.

Canada’s Jeremy Hansen rockets toward the moon with Artemis II after engine burn

CAPE CANAVERAL - Canadian Jeremy Hansen is headed toward the moon as part of the Artemis II lunar mission after a nearly six-minute engine burn to bust out of orbit Thursday evening.

Hansen, serving as mission specialist for Artemis II, is the first non-American to travel beyond low Earth orbit.

Also on board the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity by the crew, are veteran NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch.

After the spacecraft successfully completed a manoeuvre known as a translunar injection, Hansen had a message for the people of Earth.

A legal reckoning for social media firms

It has been referred to as a bellwether case, a landmark decision and a profound “enough is enough” moment.

April Fools’ Day jokes highlight real-life issues, joys of local small businesses, owners say

Oh Doughnuts patrons received a prank with their pastries on Wednesday morning.

The beloved Winnipeg business posted on social media that, at day’s end, it would shut its doors for good.

“The economy has been rough for us all, but as a small business it just became too difficult to keep this doughnut train going,” the post stated.

Eagle-eyed readers noted it twice mentioned April 1 — a hint it was in fact an April Fools’ Day jest.