Manitoba honey industry buzzing as U.S. tariff clock ticks

Canadian product is being rushed to the United States ahead of a threatened 50 per cent tariff on the industry.

U of M exhibition brings ancient Roman Egyptian documents to life

Two thousand years ago, people in Roman Egypt wrote letters, kept receipts, made lists and dealt with the everyday bureaucracy of life. Some of those pieces of ancient life are now on display in Winnipeg.

New exhibition offers up 125 different ways to look at Canada

As a curator and head of collections and exhibitions at WAG-Qaumajuq, Riva Symko has been contemplating landscapes in art for a long time. But living in an ever-changing and ever-threatened one has altered her perspective on them.

Before coming to Winnipeg, Symko and her husband lived in Anchorage, Alaska. One day, seven or so years ago, they were out hiking when a sudden thunderstorm rolled through — “which is very unusual in Alaska,” she says — sparking a forest fire that ended up raging out of control. That summer, the whole city, save for the ocean side, was surrounded by fire and blanketed with heavy smoke. Climate change was viscerally visible.

“And since then, I really haven’t been able to look at a beautiful landscape the same,” she says.

With Terra Cognita/Incognita, a new exhibition opening at WAG-Qaumajuq Wednesday night, Symko wants to inspire and challenge viewers to look at landscapes differently, too.

From the Plate to the Mic: Several former Blue Jays active in baseball podcast space

TORONTO - The post-season hangover lasted a lot longer than Toronto Blue Jays fans expected this year.

A slow start coupled with mid-season struggles nearly derailed the 2026 campaign for Canada's lone big-league team. However, a strong run of form after the recent trade deadline has lifted Toronto back into the playoff race.

With interest ramping up for the reigning American League champions, the timing couldn't be better for several former Blue Jays who moved into the baseball podcast space this year.

One such offering is the "Get It Done League" podcast featuring former sluggers Josh Donaldson and Russell Martin with broadcaster Arash Madani. The title serves as a nod to a memorable Donaldson quote from the 2015 season.

Daycare, family centre addition will turn care home into intergenerational community hub

Seven-year-olds and 70-somethings will socialize daily when a 152-spot daycare opens inside of a seniors’ residence in Winnipeg in a couple of years.

Construction on a new wing of the Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre is scheduled to begin this fall, it was announced Monday.

The project won’t be complete for at least 22 months, but it’s already being touted as a made-in-Manitoba model for intergenerational community hubs across the country.

“It’s a real good idea to mix the younger generation with the older generation,” said Allan Rutherford, a 79-year-old resident of the 200-bed personal care home in Linden Ridge.

Men accused in commercial break-in spree were wearing ankle bracelets

Two men in electric ankle bracelets who were being monitored by justice officials have been accused in a two-month spree of commercial break-ins, vehicle thefts and other property crimes.

City police have charged one of the suspects and are searching for the second.

About $140,000 worth of property, including trailers, lawn equipment, motorcycles and bicycles, was reported stolen in 13 incidents in Winnipeg and the Rural Municipality of Headingley between April 20 and June 28, the Winnipeg Police Service said.

Both suspects were wearing electronic monitoring bracelets during that time.

Canada’s social media ban for under-16s likely to face Charter challenge, experts say

OTTAWA - The federal government is likely to face a constitutional challenge to its proposed ban on social media for kids under 16, some experts say.

On Friday, France’s top court struck down that country’s social media ban for kids under 15, saying the ban was too broad and infringed on freedom of expression.

Dalhousie University associate law professor Michael Karanicolas said a Charter challenge to Canada’s law is almost inevitable.

"If we're talking about such a significant intervention in the social media space and in the expressive space, there will be organizations that have the resources and the expertise to take a challenge forward and I think it's very likely that we see litigation around this," he said.

Free fix is in: repair café aims to keep items out of landfills

Stephen Kirk wants to give people a chance to fix items they’re not ready to let go of.

The Spence Neighbourhood Association staffer took notice when repair cafés started popping up around the world, and he decided to bring the idea to Winnipeg.

The café invites people to bring broken items like bikes, clothes and small kitchen appliances to the association’s headquarters to get free repairs by a team of skilled volunteers.

“Certainly in our neighbourhood, a lot of people’s motivation is economic, they would rather fix it than have to buy a new one,” said Kirk, the environmental and open spaces coordinator for the Spence Neighbourhood Association.

Trustees call for e-scooter safety education

School trustees are calling on the province to bolster public education around e-bike and e-scooter safety ahead of back-to-school season.

The Manitoba School Boards Association brought members’ concerns about a growing number of students using electronic devices to get to and from classes to the education minister’s office this month.

“There’s a concerning lack of safety knowledge on the part of Manitoba youth,” executive director Alan Campbell said.

Campbell, a long-time trustee in the Interlake School Division, resigned from elected office this summer to run the association that mobilizes school boards and provides them with labour relations support.

Volunteer helps keep Nellie McClung’s legacy alive

Growing up with ties to the community of Manitou, Gillian Potvin has found great inspiration in the traces of Nellie McClung’s legacy.

The 39-year-old has spent nearly a decade channelling that inspiration back into the community by being a key part of the Nellie McClung Museum of Canada’s marketing and events planning since it opened at 55 Main St., in the southern Manitoba town in 2017.

Utilizing her skills in marketing and digital design for the museum is her way of thanking the woman who fought for the rights she has today and continuing her legacy.

“She helped women to be identified as persons and that’s huge,” she said of the woman born in 1873 and considered one of Canada’s most prominent suffragists. “It’s easy to take for granted some of these rights we now have as women, but there would have been a big fight back in the day to change the things that have always been.”

Indigenous peoples are deeply invested in Canada

First Nations voters have only been allowed the legal right to cast a ballot in Canadian elections since 1960, but many in the past — perhaps rightly — felt a sense of complicity in the country’s colonization or, worse, that voting didn’t make a difference. Not anymore.

Inside the Montreal lab working to prepare Canada against future pandemics

MONTREAL - In a biomedicine laboratory at Polytechnique Montréal, animal protein grows in a bubbling orange solution as researchers in white lab coats take samples with large syringes.

Neatly-labelled glass bottles filled with clear liquid line the shelves next to computer monitors, where the scientists examine the antibodies produced by the cells.

In a room down the hall, a large cryogenic freezer is filled with tubes containing samples of proteins and cells that can be used to develop vaccines and medicines.

Six years after the spread of COVID-19 caught the world by surprise, the Polytechnique lab is spearheading efforts to prepare Canada against future pandemics.

‘You vote with your bike’: cyclists celebrate freedoms, call for increased safety

Patty Wiens got dressed up in her sparkly, hot pink cowboy boots to pedal and talk politics with more than 100 other people on Sunday.

The founder of Winnipeg’s Fancy Women Bike Ride called on attendees of the 2026 event to ask candidates in the upcoming civic election — a half-dozen of whom were in attendance — about their active transportation platforms.

“We’re here today, in an election year, to remind you that you vote with your bike,” Wiens told a crowd of nearly 120 cyclists gathered on the legislature grounds for the group ride.

“When (city council) candidates come to your door and ask what’s important to you, you’re going to say, ‘I want to ride my bike safely in the city. What are you going to do about it?’”

Anti-terrorism measures hindering Muslim charities’ humanitarian efforts: study

OTTAWA - Strict measures to prevent terrorism financing are prompting Muslim charities in Canada to withdraw humanitarian assistance from countries in need, such as Syria and Yemen, because they fear losing access to banking services if they operate there, a new study warns.

The study by University of Toronto law and history professor Anver Emon makes a dozen recommendations, aimed at various federal agencies, to help charities and other non-profit organizations provide assistance abroad without fear of repercussions.

The treatment of Muslim charities has come under scrutiny in recent years. Critics claim they have been unfairly singled out in the fight against terrorist financing.

A National Security and Intelligence Review Agency report released last October found "a lack of rigour" in the way the Canada Revenue Agency selects charities for audits over terrorism concerns. The report said the process introduces risks of bias and discrimination.

Ottawa wants to block kids from social media. How would age verification work?

OTTAWA - In June, the federal government introduced Bill C-34, which would force social media platforms to block access for kids under 16.

The exact ways in which social media platforms would verify age haven’t yet been worked out. Culture Minister Marc Miller said there will be "a back and forth with platforms as to what protects people’s privacy and what is adequate and sufficient in the circumstances."

But we can look to experiences in other countries to get an idea of the options. They range from facial age estimation technology to verification through existing accounts to government-issued digital ID.

Canada is one of a number of countries around the world moving toward social media age restrictions.

Rise of social media reflects rise of self-promotion — to the detriment of genuine storytelling

A conversation is overheard between two people; one congratulates the other on their success, evident through countless posts on LinkedIn, but the other confesses the prolific aggrandizement is due to slumping success.

A young man on an airplane spends three hours poring over selfies taken on a vacation, zooming in on his biceps and using AI to retouch photos before posting on Instagram.

Anonymous and cowardly trolls on Reddit attempt to end another person’s career.

All this “storytelling” was observed in one day by this reviewer.

Meetings accomplish something that an email never could while respecting people’s time, building relationships

There are few workplace experiences that unite employees quite like complaining about meetings. Ask almost anyone what frustrates them at work, and somewhere on the list will be the meeting that could have been an email. We’ve all been there. Thirty minutes scheduled for a simple update somehow turns into an hour. Half the attendees don’t need to be there. Someone shares their screen for ten minutes trying to find the right document. The meeting ends with everyone wondering what was actually decided.

It’s no surprise that organizations are looking for ways to reduce meeting fatigue. Every hour spent in a meeting is an hour that isn’t spent serving customers, solving problems, writing reports, or completing projects. As calendars become increasingly crowded, employees often find themselves working longer days simply to catch up on the work they couldn’t accomplish because they were in meetings.

The obvious solution seems simple: hold fewer meetings. In many cases, that’s exactly the right answer. Routine updates, policy reminders, project status reports, and information that doesn’t require discussion can often be shared through email and chat platforms. Not every piece of information deserves everyone’s calendar.

But eliminating meetings altogether would create a different problem, especially as more organizations embrace hybrid and remote work.

Human cost of AI bubble outweighs tech’s potential

Despite the title of his new book, Cory Doctorow isn’t against artificial intelligence (AI). At least, not exactly — although, admittedly, the “Before It’s Too Late” of the book’s subtitle sounds ominous.

A self-described AI critic, Doctorow is against the scammy story tech companies are selling investors and bosses: that AI can replace workers, cut costs and keep tech companies growing forever.

Doctorow introduces the idea of “centaurs” and “reverse centaurs” to expose power relationships between people and AI. In automation theory, a centaur is a person who is helped by a machine. A reverse centaur is a person who is forced to help a machine. The difference, Doctorow argues, is whether the person gets to choose when, where and how to use the tool.

He wants readers to stop being dazzled by AI and start asking who uses it, from it and gets used by it.

Célébrer des employés qui mettent la main à la pâte

L’immigration francophone joue un rôle grandissant dans la vitalité de Saint-Pierre-Jolys. À la Boulangerie Saint-Pierre, des employés venus de plusieurs pays contribuent à la croissance de l’entreprise tout en s’intégrant à la vie du village. Une diversité que l’entreprise souhaite célébrer avec une nouvelle murale.

La Boulangerie Saint-Pierre, à Saint-Pierre-Jolys, connaît une importante expansion depuis quelques années. Pour Jocelyn Gagné, propriétaire de l’entreprise familiale, cette croissance repose largement sur le travail de ses employés, dont plusieurs sont des immigrants francophones. C’est pour souligner leur contribution que la boulangerie, en collaboration avec l’artiste franco-manitobain Gérald Laroche, a entrepris la création d’une murale qui ornera bientôt sa façade.

Jocelyn Gagné, qui travaille dans l’entreprise depuis l’âge de 13 ans, alors que ses parents étaient propriétaires, constate bien que la société a changé à travers les années. “On est rendu dans près de 150 magasins, on a grandi pas mal vite dans la dernière année. On a beaucoup plus d’employés que dans le temps de mes parents.” Avec une telle croissance, le besoin d’engager davantage de main-d’œuvre est venu naturellement.

Un Folklorama à l’année longue

Don’t delete organ concert tickets when scrubbing digital life

We all have digital footprints of varying sizes and, in the future, grandma’s proverbial china set will be replaced by terabyte hard drives and social media accounts.