Wab Kinew as ‘communicator in chief’

Premier Wab Kinew and his party have been riding high in the polls longer than normal for a government one year or less away from its first re-election contest. One reason is his ubiquitous, dominating communications presence as NDP leader and premier.

The argument here is that Kinew has supplemented his prerogatives as premier and party leader (such as appointing cabinet ministers and approving party nominations) with the skilful use of communications to advance his policy agenda, boost his personal popularity and maintain the competitive advantage of his party over the opposition Progressive Conservatives.

Communications has always been a significant part of politics and policy making. However, in the contemporary political and media environments, communications considerations have moved from the background to the foreground of decision-making by political parties, including when they are performing in the role of government. Campaigning and governing now overlap in what has been described as a permanent election campaign.

Political parties use communications strategies for several purposes: to establish an image of the leader which makes a positive emotional connection with voters; to promote a coherent message and to keep party members on message; and to gain favourable media coverage for its policies and other actions on almost a daily basis.

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.

Puck drops on new-look NHL broadcasting scene after major off-season changes

TORONTO - An off-season of major changes on the NHL broadcasting scene in Canada may leave some hockey fans searching through their TV guides and others digging into their wallets.

To start, Saturday nights will feel a lot different in this country. After decades of NHL coverage, the CBC will no longer broadcast the league's games on "Hockey Night in Canada."

Sportsnet will continue to broadcast most NHL games after Rogers Communications extended its rights agreement with the league for 12 years at a cost of $11 billion. Bell Media's TSN/RDS will still broadcast some regional games and the Amazon Prime Monday Night package is shifting to Wednesdays.

"I think that we're being re-educated in how sports are going to be digested by the general population in that you can no longer just click on your old favourite channel and your game is there," said Michael McKinley, author of “Hockey Night in Canada: 60 Seasons.”

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.

U of W marks gallery’s anniversary with group alumni exhibition

Lux et veritas floreant, or Let light and truth flourish, is the University of Winnipeg’s motto.

It’s also a fitting title — and guiding theme — for a group exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of Gallery 1C03, the university’s campus art gallery.

Curated by Gallery 1C03 director and curator Jennifer Gibson and independent curator Jenny Western — both university alumni themselves — Lux et Veritas Floreant features works by U of W alumni artists KC Adams, Dee Barsy, Scott Benesiinaabandan, Jaimie Isaac, Judah Iyunade, Kegan McFadden, Shivanya Ra, Paul Robles and Melanie Zurba.

There is also a film component. A 7 p.m. screening tonight at Dave Barber Cinematheque features 10 films by alumni artists, including Steve Bates, Ian Bawa, Mahlet Cuff, Christina Hajjar, Mike Maryniuk, Kevin Settee, Leslie Supnet and Ted Turner. Isaac and Iyunade also have films in the program.

U of W marks 10 years of Indigenous education requirement

The University of Winnipeg is collecting course outlines, historic concerns about systemic racism on campus and related records to mark the 10-year anniversary of mandating Indigenous studies.

The unveiling of a new archive drew nearly 200 people to Centennial Hall on Thursday afternoon to reflect on how the Indigenous course requirement, also known as “the ICR,” came to be.

University archivist Brett Lougheed told the crowd its inception is “an amazing story” of student activism that, until now, wasn’t accurately reflected in U of W records.

“What little material we had told the story of administration’s role in developing the ICR as though it was the ultimate driver… and not a student-led response to racism,” Lougheed said.

Global prediction markets, local presence

Winnipeg’s mayoral race has reached a new platform: illegal online betting.

Incumbent Scott Gillingham took the lead on U.S.-based Polymarket on Thursday afternoon. Some $15,335 had been invested in his win (from 54 per cent of bettors).

Gillingham also led on Kalshi, another U.S. prediction market. Half of bettors were banking on his victory (a ‘yes’ share was 60 cents at the time).

Kevin Klein trailed in second place in both Polymarket and Kalshi contracts; Mazher Alam had garnered $2,256 and third place on Polymarket; Don Woodstock claimed third place on Kalshi by 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

East St. Paul product’s next wheelchair basketball chapter in Spain’s best men’s division

Every time Joshua Brown takes the court, the line between dreams and reality blurs.

You see, Brown, born and raised in East St. Paul, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy early in life. Understanding his condition, he came to terms with the challenge it would be to play stand-up sports competitively.

That didn’t stop him from dreaming, though.

Brown remembers watching Canada’s best in wheelchair basketball at the Paralympic Games on television as a youngster, and vividly recalls what went through his mind at the time.

Indigenous Sports Fund listening to level playing field

Manitoba is home base for a fund organizers hope will boost Indigenous participation in sport across Canada.

“We should be involved in more than just dancing in the opening ceremonies,” said Bruce Miller, creator of the nascent Indigenous Sports Fund.

He’s been visiting First Nations and Métis groups since June as part of “listening tours,” where community members share their thoughts about how such a fund could be used.

It’s not his first time launching a project: he’s a founding member of the Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre and has led the Indigenous Peoples Resilience Fund, which provided emergency relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.

RRC Polytech among schools selected to train RCAF aircraft technicians

Red River College Polytechnic will become one of the first civilian schools to train Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft technicians.

The first cohort is expected to begin aircraft maintenance engineer training in fall 2027. Students will attend the post-secondary’s Stevenson campus in Winnipeg.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for us to grow,” Fred Meier, RRC Polytech’s president, said as he and University of Manitoba president Michael Benarroch addressed business executives at a Manitoba Chambers of Commerce event Tuesday morning in Winnipeg.

They highlighted the local post-secondaries’ increasing work with the Canadian Armed Forces and broader defence sector.

Manitoba students able to opt out of classes with sensitive lessons on sex, drug use

Manitoba’s premier pledges to continue allowing parents to pull their kids from health class if content — be it related to human sexuality, substance use or otherwise — clashes with personal beliefs.

Wab Kinew said Tuesday the government’s overhaul of phys-ed and health curriculum in Manitoba schools won’t impact the ability for parents to opt-out of a lesson and deliver material as they see fit.

“As a parent, you are your child’s first and most important teacher and that will always be the case,” Kinew said, surrounded by hundreds of teenagers on the football field outside Kelvin High School during an announcement Tuesday.

More than 100 schools are taking part in a voluntary pilot project this fall. It’s the first systematic review of this curriculum in decades. The changes to kindergarten-to-Grade 12 courses will be mandated to all schools in September 2028.

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.

Post-secondary leaders to discuss cross-campus collaborations

The artificial intelligence boom is inducing panic about the makeup of Manitoba’s future workforce and influencing new post-secondary application trends.

What remains a constant, says the economist who oversees the University of Manitoba, is the often-overlooked value of a liberal arts degree.

“I’ve always believed in it being a foundation for lifelong learning,” said Michael Benarroch, president and vice-chancellor of the largest post-secondary institute in the province.

“Even more so, in a world of AI, where AI is going to do certain tasks, I think humanities education and social sciences education is going to become even more important.”

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.

‘La Bola Negra’ wins TIFF’s People Choice Award, putting it on Oscar path

“La Bola Negra,” the Spanish queer epic about the intertwined lives of three gay men, won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, confirming its status as a major Oscar contender.

TIFF's top award is voted on by festivalgoers, and it's become known as one of the most iron-clad Academy Awards predictors. Since 2012, all but one winner of the People's Choice Award has gone on to score a best-picture nomination at the Oscars. The lone exception was in 2024, when Mike Flanagan's Stephen King adaptation “The Life of Chuck” won the award. Last year, “Hamnet” won it and later landed eight Oscar nominations.

“La Bola Negra” is directed by the duo known as Los Javis — Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo. It was already a hit at the Cannes Film Festival, where “La Bola Negra” split the best director award with Paweł Pawlikowski for “Fatherland.”

Netflix acquired “La Bola Negra” out of Cannes and has launched a full awards campaign for the film. Netflix is also giving the film its longest theatrical release yet for the streamer. “La Bola Negra” opens in theaters Oct. 16 and begins streaming Dec. 2.

New health curriculum puts emphasis on harm reduction

Manitoba is revamping how students are taught about drugs with an emphasis on harm reduction, the complexities of substance use disorders and the role of ceremonial tobacco in Indigenous cultures.

For the first time this century, physical education and health curriculum is undergoing a systematic overhaul set to debut in September 2028.

Drafts released this back-to-school season have “substances and patterns of behaviour” units across kindergarten to Grade 12.

Grade 6 has been updated so students learn about the short- and long-term effects and risks of using and misusing cannabis products, as well as caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and vaping.

‘Parental rights’ issue resurfaces

Trustee campaign material that condemns rainbow flags is being met with outrage of all kinds, written complaints and, in one case, a cease-and-desist order.

“Parental rights,” including questions about classroom diversity, equity and inclusion policies, are resurfacing heading into school board elections across Manitoba.

“People are trying to advance their politics and their issues while simultaneously calling teachers ideologues and brainwashers,” said Shannon Moore, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba who studies sexual health education. “And I find that rich.”

Moore said parents have a right to choose independent school or homeschool, but they do not have a right to dictate curriculum that is currently developed using research and mainstream morals.

Food literacy curriculum on the menu

Manitoba has a new recipe for health class and “food literacy” is a key ingredient.

The in-class portion of phys-ed has historically involved lessons about puberty, the risks of consuming drugs and dissecting Canada’s food guide.

A new pilot program asks teachers to expand their nutrition units and include in-depth discussions about how everything from diet culture to food insecurity affects eating habits.

“This is really moving beyond a conception of food as only fuel, where you just boil down food to its calories, its vitamins,” said Sarah Elvins, a food historian at the University of Manitoba who researches popular culture and marketing.

Microsoft commits to sweeping AI privacy rules for students. Will other tech giants follow?

Millions of students every day turn to AI chatbots for help with schoolwork, emotional support and personal advice — often unaware of where their conversations and other personal information end up.

How that data is used — and schools' role in protecting it — is a growing concern for educators, parents and kids as artificial intelligence becomes a ubiquitous part of the school day, embedded in many of the classroom tools students are required to use.

As the school year started, the country's two largest school districts, New York City and Los Angeles, announced they were putting the brakes on student use of AI for one year, as they study how to best incorporate the technology into education.

In response to a growing AI and screentime backlash, Microsoft announced last week it had agreed to adopt guardrails and privacy standards for its AI in schools, as negotiated with the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers union.