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.

Province paid three men wrongfully convicted in 1973 Winnipeg homicide $4 million apiece

More than five decades after their lives were derailed by a racist justice system, the provincial government has paid millions of dollars to three men who were wrongfully convicted in a 1973 Winnipeg homicide.

Clarence Woodhouse, Allan Woodhouse (no relation) and Brian Anderson were wrongfully convicted of murdering restaurant worker Ting Fong Chan in 1974.

The ruling was reversed in 2024 for Clarence Woodhouse, when he was acquitted by Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal, and in 2023 for both Allan Woodhouse and Anderson. Russell Woodhouse, Clarence’s brother, was also subjected to a miscarriage of justice — he was wrongfully convicted of manslaughter — but died in 2011.

Canada’s first post-mortem conviction review has since been called into his case.

Gillingham promises to make north Main revitalization a second-term priority

Scott Gillingham says he will work to “reset and renew” north Main Street, if he wins a second term as mayor.

The incumbent candidate promised Tuesday to devise a long-term plan to rejuvenate that section of the thoroughfare, noting it has recently suffered from decay.

“It has a rich history, a deep and proud history. But the last couple of years, to say it’s been underperforming would be an understatement…. So many stretches of Main Street here, I see derelict buildings, boarded-up businesses, piles of rubble after fires that sit waiting to be cleaned up,” Gillingham said.

“We can disrupt what is going on and turn the tide on north Main Street.”

Changing Transit Plus drivers’ status a ‘ridiculous anti-worker provision,’ councillor says

Some fear a change of status for Winnipeg Transit Plus drivers could allow them to be paid less and receive fewer benefits.

However, council’s public works chairwoman said pay protections are now embedded in contracts and the change is needed to attract enough workers.

Three years ago, city council passed a motion that required Winnipeg Transit Plus drivers to be employees of companies the city hires to provide accessible transit service.

Coun. Brian Mayes said that clause prevents “sub-minimum wages” from being permitted for subcontracted drivers and ensures drivers can access multiple benefits.

RWB’s Studio Series offers up-close ballet experience

If you’ve ever been curious about checking out the ballet, but have also felt like spending two or more hours at the concert hall is too big a commitment or too intimidating, Christopher Stowell gets it.

That’s just one of several reasons the artistic director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet wanted to introduce the Studio Series, a black-box theatre series that offers a more intimate and approachable way to experience the art form.

The inaugural edition, which runs Thursday through Saturday at the RWB Founders Studio and Sunday at Desautels Concert Hall, features a performance of George Balanchine’s Who Cares?, set to George Gershwin’s songs as performed by a jazz musicians from the University of Manitoba’s Desautels faculty of music.

Audiences will be able to ask questions, meet the dancers and get an up-close look at their craft.

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.”

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.

Carney says he won’t backtrack on digital services tax, streamers’ CanCon payments

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney says he won’t change his mind about his decision to eliminate the digital services tax and Canadian content contributions for streamers.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet asked Carney in the House of Commons on Monday whether he would reconsider those decisions, since they failed to secure progress in trade talks with the United States.

"No," Carney replied.

Blanchet said in French that Carney's strategy failed and that big tech companies, whose revenue streams are larger than those of some countries, should have to contribute to arts and culture.

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.

B.C. sues OpenAI, says one call could have prevented Tumbler Ridge mass shooting

VANCOUVER - The B.C. government has filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence company OpenAI in California over the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., asserting "one telephone call to the RCMP could have prevented the tragedy."

Attorney General Niki Sharma announced the filing on Monday, saying the province is seeking accountability from OpenAI and its decision-makers.

British Columbia is also aiming to recover costs associated with the shootings in February that left eight victims dead, including five students at the local secondary school.

Sharma said OpenAI failed to warn police of concerning interactions between the shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, and the company's chatbot ChatGPT.

Moe warns ‘blood potash’ part of Trump’s planned deal with Belarus to thwart Canada

REGINA - As U.S. President Donald Trump works on a deal to buy potash from Belarus to lessen dependence on Canadian fertilizer, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is warning that the eastern European country has blood on its hands.

"More than 40 countries – Canada and its allies – have sanctions against Belarus for supporting war criminal (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s invasion of Ukraine," Moe said on social media Monday.

"Buying blood potash from Belarus is supporting Russian aggression.

"It’s wrong and it doesn’t make sense."

Oil, grain exports fuel record cargo at Port of Vancouver as trade shifts beyond U.S.

The head of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority says surging oil and grain exports drove a record amount of cargo through its gates in the first half of the year as part of a push away from U.S. markets, with Alberta crude fuelling the pivot.

Freight volumes at the Port of Vancouver rode a rising tide of crude oil and canola seed to a three per cent year-over-year increase for the six months ended June 30, the federal agency said Monday.

Port authority chief executive Peter Xotta described "a degree of focus and urgency" to hauling loads — fossil fuels included — to and from countries that lie beyond North American shores.

"The U.S. percentage of crude oil shipments is declining ... as those global destinations for Alberta crude increase," he said in a phone interview from Canada Place, which overlooks Vancouver Harbour.

Climate Week talks balance hope for clean energy against uncertainty over artificial intelligence

NEW YORK (AP) — As scientists calculated that Earth is getting sicker, global leaders on Monday kicked off a week of talks about how to fix it and fast, pointing to hope from a renewable energy boom.

A different boom, in artificial intelligence and the power-and-water-hungry data centers behind it, could both worsen and solve some of these issues, a paradox world and business leaders will struggle with this week.

Every year as top government officials attend the United Nations General Assembly and business executives flock to New York Climate Week sessions, global warming generates lots of talk but little action.

This time two new forces — the rise of AI and data centers, as well as higher fossil fuel prices from wars in Iran and Ukraine — should change the discussion, experts and activists said. That's on top of climate-driven disasters recently reaching new levels of destruction in Asia.

Happily guiding others through city’s art world

The last Saturday in September is fast approaching and Ed Benjamin, 69, is gearing up for his regular volunteer stint at Nuit Blanche.

While he hasn’t grabbed this year’s T-shirt yet — he’ll only be able to pick it up during Friday’s orientation — he’s more than prepared for his 5:30-9:30 p.m. shift on Sept. 26.

This will be Benjamin’s sixth year volunteering at the annual contemporary art festival, now in its 16th year.

“I think it’s the best night of the year in Winnipeg, just a fantastic night. And having done it once, I just want to keep going back. It’s very intense but it’s not a significant commitment, it’s just one night, so it’s easy to commit to it,” he says.

‘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.

Woman who fled abuse decries lack of consequences for landlord who breached lease-breaking confidentiality

The provincial government is being asked to penalize landlords who breach the confidentiality of tenants breaking a lease to flee domestic violence after a survivor discovered there’s no consequences now.

“It put me in a very difficult situation,” said the woman, who was stunned to see that her landlord copied her abuser in email correspondence, including the domestic violence certificate she obtained to end a tenancy agreement early and leave an abusive relationship.

“My heart dropped to my stomach — I was in disbelief,” she said, recalling the confidentiality breach that occurred in 2025.

“I’m very lucky to be in a situation where it’s no longer a threat to my immediate safety.”

News outlets sue Trump over lost White House access, citing ‘blatant violation’ of First Amendment

NEW YORK (AP) — CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Monday sued President Donald Trump’s administration days after they were barred from White House grounds, calling the selective ban — based on the content of their coverage — a “blatant violation” of the First Amendment. Trump said on social media that he ”cherished" a free press but not “FAKE NEWS.”

“White House access is a privilege — not a right,” the administration posted on X.

The extraordinary ban of the three news outlets' reporters, which began over the weekend, represented a clear escalation of Trump’s long-running efforts — in the courts and through administrative action — to restrict news coverage he finds objectionable. They were also the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States, where the government is constitutionally forbidden from restricting the press.

The Constitution, the banned news outlets said in their lawsuit, “does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting.”

Buy Canadian scanner apps have exploded online. How do you know which one is right?

One app tells you a bottle of Heinz tomato ketchup is prepared in Canada, another deems it partially Canadian, while a third calls it "not Canadian-owned."

For consumers scouring the grocery store for Canadian-made food items after the latest eruption of U.S. tariffs, it can be difficult to discern which products are truly Canadian and which aren't.

Multiple apps sprang up promising to help shoppers buy Canadian-made products after trade tensions with the United States broke out last year.

Users typically scan an item's bar code or logo, which then produces results on how Canadian the item is. But each app has its own methodology, making apples-to-apples comparison difficult, and the level of detail varies.