New Music Festival explores theme of technology amid global rise of AI

This year’s New Music Festival runs Jan. 21-29 and includes six events.

Flexibility has become deal-breaker, not perk

There was a time when a flexible work arrangement was a bonus, something employees quietly hoped for once they’d survived probation.

A remote day here or there, the ability to adjust hours around a doctor’s appointment or the occasional work-from-home afternoon were all considered nice extras — perks that made a job feel a little more humane.

Fast forward to January 2026, and flexibility isn’t something workers merely appreciate. For many, it has become a core condition of employment — a deal-breaker if it’s removed or denied.

This shift is on full display this month as Ontario’s provincial government has begun implementing a policy that requires civil servants to return to the office full time. As of Jan. 5, nearly 60,000 public service employees who had been working remotely or in hybrid arrangements are being told to work in person five days a week.

Profiter de l’hiver en musique

Depuis plus de vingt ans, le festival Music ‘N’ Mavens s’est donné pour mission de transformer l’hiver winnipegois en saison de rencontres, en misant sur la curiosité culturelle et le plaisir de se retrouver. Jusqu’au 26 mars, au Rady Jewish Community Centre (Rady JCC), la série propose chaque mardi et jeudi après-midi des concerts et des conférences pensés comme des instants de rencontre.

À contre-courant des habitudes culturelles, Music ‘N’ Mavens assume pleinement son créneau de jour avec des concerts et conférences en plein après-midi.

”Je me souviens qu’au début, on me demandait comment je pouvais penser que les gens viendraient à 14 heures quand il fait -30 degrés,” raconte Karla Berbrayer, fondatrice et directrice artistique du festival. Je leur répondais qu’il fallait une raison pour quitter la maison. Et aujourd’hui, plusieurs me disent que c’est la raison qui les pousse à sortir pendant la journée.”

À l’initiative du projet, l’on retrouve Karla Berbrayer, polyglotte et francophile, elle a nourri son intérêt pour la langue française qu’elle a commencé à apprendre en école d’immersion. La fondatrice défend depuis le départ une idée simple, celle d’offrir des propositions artistiques, sociales et culturelles à un moment de la journée souvent négligé.

Manitoba enterprise at forefront in bolstering soil structure

Soil health has always been important to anyone who wants to grow plants that flourish but never more so than today. Soil degradation due to drought and extreme weather is a global problem that has a direct link to agricultural productivity and food security.

The status of soil health in Canada is not a concern limited to farmers and backyard gardeners. Scientists, policy makers and researchers are recommending urgent action to protect soils to safeguard the future of our food production.

In June 2024, following an 18-month study of soil conditions in Canada, the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry released the report Critical Ground: Why Soil is Essential to Canada’s Economic, Environmental, Human and Social Health. The report, which is based on testimony from more than 150 experts, concluded that soil in our country is at risk, with implications for food production, climate resilience and biodiversity.

Dale Overton takes soil health and its implications for fertility and food production seriously. His company, Overton Environmental Enterprises, manufactures several microbial products for large-scale agriculture as well as for the home gardener. Overton is deeply interested in regenerative farming practices and how biological amendments can benefit soil health, carbon sequestration and soil microbiomes, and boost growth rates and crop yields.

Funding shortfall undermines Canada’s ability to track diseases threatening wildlife, human health

The head of a national network that tracks the spread of wildlife diseases says a persistent funding shortfall is undermining Canada’s ability to detect and respond to emerging threats to biodiversity, agriculture and human health.

Damien Joly is the chief executive officer of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, a network of Canada’s five veterinary schools and the B.C. government’s Animal Health Centre. The CWHC works with federal, provincial and territorial governments to monitor wildlife diseases across the country.

In an interview with The Narwhal, Joly said the organization is “cash strapped across the board.”

“We do not have the resources we need to effectively monitor these diseases,” he said.

Noem burns bridges with tribes as governor, uses ICE to fan flames for Trump

During most of her time as the Republican governor of South Dakota from 2019 to 2025, Kristi Noem was officially banned by nine Indigenous tribes, prohibiting her from travelling to nearly 12 per cent of the state’s territory.

In particular, Noem drew the ire of the government of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, who banned her permanently from visiting their home on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The governor, Oglala Sioux leaders alleged, supported anti-protest legislation targeting Native Americans, set up illegal security checkpoints to stop Indigenous peoples from leaving their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and claimed — with no evidence to back it up — that Mexican drug cartels were joining with a Native American gang called “Ghost Dancers” to commit murders on the reservation.

At the time, Oglala Sioux Tribal president Frank Star Comes Out accused the future secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security of spreading falsehoods and stereotypes about his people while facilitating violence against them in order to gain favour with then-U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump (and, perhaps, her selection as his vice-presidential running mate).

Future students will be wired differently, thanks to AI

Teachers were urged to stop asking children what they want to be when they grow up and focus on building creative, self-directed and critical thinkers at Manitoba’s AI in Education Summit.

“How do we prepare kids for a future we can’t yet see, but we know it’s going to be radically transformed by technology?” futurist Sinead Bovell asked a crowd of educators at a first-of-its-kind conference Friday.

“That is the moment that we are in.”

The province invited Bovell, founder of tech education company WAYE, to share her predictions about artificial intelligence and related advice for schools.

Judge upholds cat custody ruling, saying parenthood and pet ownership aren’t same

An Alberta judge has divided up a group of cats between two feuding former spouses, saying neither gets to keep all of them because — in Alberta at least — pets aren’t the same as kids and legally shouldn’t be treated as such.

Carney reaches ‘landmark’ tariff quota deal with China on EVs, canola

BEIJING - Prime Minister Mark Carney touted a renewed relationship with China and "enormous progress" on trade irritants as he announced a new deal with Beijing on electric vehicles and canola at the end of a high-profile trip to China on Friday.

But the agreement has received mixed reviews at home. Ontario and the auto sector warned of the dangers of giving China new access to Canada's auto market, while Prairie premiers and farm groups welcomed the drop in tariffs on some agricultural products.

The deal, made public shortly after Carney met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, marks a de-escalation in tensions with a country the Liberal government branded as a disruptive power just three years ago.

Carney distanced himself from that description on Friday, noting he was not part of the government that used the term in Canada's 2022 Indo-Pacific strategy.

Another erased piece of the Winnipeg that was

The rubble was still smoking a little on Wednesday afternoon, though by then, all that remained of the place were its bones.

Storybook ending for student warming hut winners

Manitoba’s newest student-designed warming hut doubles as a public awareness campaign for a child advocacy centre.

First Nation’s power-outage misery ‘frozen like a rock’

An army of plumbers, engineers and members of the Canadian Armed Forces are continuing to assess damages after a lengthy power outage at Pimicikamak Cree Nation froze water and sewage pipes.

Chief David Monias said it is going to take months to repair damage to homes and years to install new water and sewage treatment plants and systems.

“They have frozen pipes — the sewage plant is completely frozen,” Monias said Wednesday. “The raw sewage has frozen like rock, it is as hard as rock. There is enough (methane) gas in there that we can’t even enter the building. So they are trying to figure out a way how to air out that building so that they can assess the sewage problem.”

Monias said the experts are going to try to get the water and sewage systems up and running while the community works with government on a longer term solution. He said the plants will eventually need to be decommissioned.

Toys “R” Us store on St. Matthews shuttering

Now that Jordan Pastushenko is a father, toys are back on his radar.

“With the little one, I do have to think about it a bit more,” he said, as he visited the Toys “R” Us at 1445 St. Matthews Ave. with his wife, Breanne, and their nine-month-old son, Bohden, on Wednesday morning.

Employees put a sign up in the Polo Park area store’s front window earlier this week notifying customers the longtime location will be closing. “Everything must go!” the sign says. It does not specify when the Winnipeg store’s last day in business will be.

Pastushenko saw a photo of the sign online, which inspired his trip to the store. “We have gift cards, so I guess we’ve got to use them,” he said.

Children’s Hospital to spruce up ward with local art

Local artists are being invited to create child-friendly nature-themed original artworks for the walls of CK5, the childhood cancer, blood disorders and transplants ward at the Health Sciences Centre Children’s Hospital.

Donning the vest: Young crossing guards take up safety tradition

Georgia Donachuk and the rest of her all-girls squad have given up their lunch hour for the greater good.

Equipped with flags, vests and, at this time of year, lots of layers, five girls can be found scanning the perimeter of Isaac Brock School on weekdays.

What motivates them to clock in daily for the 12:30 p.m. shift, even when it’s -25 C?

“I like keeping people safe when they cross the street,” Georgia, 10, said after shedding her CAA vest and hanging it on a hook in her school’s front lobby on a recent weekday. “Also, every time we go out, we see a cat!”

Who calls the shots on city land use?

Everybody thinks it, but no one wants to say it out loud — the fact that for decades, our city council and its administration have, to a large degree, been in thrall to the construction and development industries.

Ribbon Skirt Day leader reflects on changes since her cultural attire was shamed

In Isabella Kulak's home is a box of about a few hundred letters, notes and hand-drawn pictures of ribbon skirts sent to her from across Canada and beyond — fan mail from those who consider her story and the origins of "Ribbon Skirt Day" as inspirational.

"I have like a whole notebook of letters, a whole stack of drawings from all these schools and it makes me feel so happy and it warms my heart," said Isabella, a shy 15-year-old, on a phone call from her home in Kamsack, Sask., located about 270 kilometres east of Regina.

"I do want to eventually write back to them, but I am really busy with school."

After all, the Anishinaabe girl is still a teenager. This past week, she had a volleyball tournament. These next few months, she will be completing Grade 10 and the next big step is on the path to medical school, she said.

Damage estimates spiral as Pimicikamak tries to recover from power outage, deep freeze

The power is back on, but the damage has been done. Water leaks. Burst pipes. Burned houses. And still, more than 4,000 residents of Pimicikamak Cree Nation are forced out of their homes, with no clear timeline of when they’ll be able to return.

On Saturday, six days after a downed power line left the remote Northern First Nation without electricity for over four days, Pimicikamak Chief David Monias spoke to reporters by Zoom to give an update on the crisis — and emphasize the expertise and supports the community still needs to recover.

Although power has been restored to the community, which is located roughly 100 km south of Thompson, over four days without electricity caused major damage, Monias said. The water treatment plant is “pretty much ready to explode” due to leaks and is unable to draw water into its reservoir, leaving the community without potable water.

Houses too suffered in the deep freeze, including damage to pipes and cracked floors. So far, of the 1,335 houses on the community, which is also known as Cross Lake, at least 200 are severely compromised and not yet safe for residents to return. That number may grow as officials continue their inspections.

Attention-grabbing screens demean us, bit by bit

The first time I read Oryx and Crake, Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s haunting dystopic novel, I couldn’t put it down. I devoured it in just days, engrossed by the fictional world Atwood wove from the most discomfiting new threads of our own.

Over the years, I returned to the book many times, always finding new depth in its pages. Each time, I finished it at the same brisk pace. I was a fast reader as a child, and for most of my life, that didn’t change.

Until now. In November, as part of an effort to calm my restless mind, I put Oryx and Crake on my nightstand, and made a pledge to myself to read a little bit every night. This time, it’s been over two months, and I’ve made it through only 92 pages.

It would be easy to say I’ve been too busy, but that would be a lie. I’ve had time to read. The problem is now, unlike when the book came out in 2003, I struggle to read more than a page without checking my phone quickly; and checking it once means falling into the chasm of raw content the internet has become.