WEATHER ALERT

Whose story is being told? How perspectives shape our understanding

Please review each article prior to use: grade-level applicability and curricular alignment might not be obvious from the headline alone.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The maze-like halls of expansive production office
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Set of The Porter a testament to the special connection production has with Winnipeg's Black history

Julia-Simone Rutgers 12 minute read Preview
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Set of The Porter a testament to the special connection production has with Winnipeg's Black history

Julia-Simone Rutgers 12 minute read Thursday, Sep. 2, 2021

On a rainy Friday evening in Winnipeg’s landmark Nutty Club building, camera crews, grips, food services, hair and makeup teams, stand-ins and actors are spinning about in dance-like organized chaos.

The five-storey candy warehouse — first erected in 1905 and still standing in the shadow of active CP and CN rail lines — has been transformed, pulled back to its turn-of-the-20th-century roots as a set for CBC’s upcoming TV drama The Porter. At each stop along the building’s steep wooden staircase, the team behind Canada’s largest Black-led production is hard at work bringing the roaring ‘20s — and an oft-forgotten story of Black liberation and empowerment — to life.

On one floor, cast and crew block their scene movements, listening raptly to directors, speaking in huddles, donning crisp white shirts and suspenders or gowns, preparing for the crack of the clapperboard.

A floor above, the members of the “video village” tuck on their headphones, lean over screens and warn each other not to move, lest the ceilings shake below.

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Thursday, Sep. 2, 2021
Front row, from left: Tobi and Craig Geekie, Back row, from left:, Morgan, Noah and Conor Geekie. (Alex Lupul / Winnipeg Free Press)
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Athletic excellence in the genes of Geekie family

Mike Sawatzky 10 minute read Preview
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Athletic excellence in the genes of Geekie family

Mike Sawatzky 10 minute read Wednesday, Sep. 1, 2021

STRATHCLAIR — It's a hot day in August and the Geekie brothers are home together for a change.

That doesn't happen much anymore.

Morgan, the eldest, has packed a lot into summer. After playing 36 games for the Carolina Hurricanes last season, the 23-year-old centre was chosen by the Seattle Kraken in the NHL expansion draft.

Less than two weeks later, he married his high-school sweetheart, Emma Coulter.

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Wednesday, Sep. 1, 2021
MIKE SUDOMA / Winnipeg Free Press Manitoba opera singer Rhonda Head performs at Assiniboine Park; she will be at the Fall Fair on Friday.
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Cree singer Rhonda Head stumbled into classical music, then made it her own

Alan Small 6 minute read Preview
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Cree singer Rhonda Head stumbled into classical music, then made it her own

Alan Small 6 minute read Wednesday, Sep. 1, 2021

Singer Rhonda Head has travelled a long and winding road to get her voice heard.

Her classically trained vocals have received worldwide recognition after she received two bronze medals from the Global Music Awards, an online competition that specializes in classical and jazz artists and composers.

Head, who hails from Opaskwayak Cree Nation, near The Pas, earned the acclaim for two Cree language songs, Kisahkihitin I Love You, which was in the contemporary classical category, and 500 Years, which received honours among protest songs.

She began taking singing lessons in 1987, after she graduated from high school at the University of Winnipeg Collegiate and moved to Toronto to study fashion. She found, almost by chance, that singing suited her better.

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Wednesday, Sep. 1, 2021
JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS People take part in a Red River Echoes community meeting at Vimy Ridge Park to discuss renaming the Wolseley neighbourhood in Winnipeg on Sunday.
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Group engages community on renaming Wolseley neighbourhood

Malak Abas 5 minute read Preview
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Group engages community on renaming Wolseley neighbourhood

Malak Abas 5 minute read Monday, Aug. 30, 2021

In 1870, Col. Garnet Wolseley led a military expedition into Manitoba to violently overthrow Louis Riel’s provisional government at the Red River Colony. On Sunday afternoon, a group gathered at Vimy Ridge Park to discuss how to push for the renaming of the neighbourhood that bears his name.

Red River Echoes, a Métis collective that first came together with the purpose of “bringing an alternative voice to what Métis people think in Manitoba” after Manitoba Metis Federation president David Chartrand put out an ad with the Winnipeg Free Press in March in support of the Winnipeg Police Service, put together the rendezvous to take questions and comments community members might have around the growing conversation to rename Wolseley.

"With a lot of names being changed right now, we thought it was a good opportunity,” Red River Echoes member Claire Johnston said. “And Wolseley in particular has a really violent and negative association for Métis people, and also all other people of colour in who live in Winnipeg.”

In the months since the remains of 215 children were found in unmarked graves near a residential school in Kamloops, B.C., calls have been sparked across the country to rename landmarks named after people who had a hand in the colonization of Canada. In Winnipeg, Wolseley isn’t the first instance — calls to rename Bishop Grandin Boulevard due to its namesake’s hand in the residential school system have resulted in consultations and a possible recommendation for its renaming coming to city council this fall.

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Monday, Aug. 30, 2021
Supplied photos The cabin all closed up for the winter, way back in the fall of 1944.
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Swimming with local history

Laurie Mustard 4 minute read Preview
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Swimming with local history

Laurie Mustard 4 minute read Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021

Get the sunscreen, we’re going to Patricia Beach!

In fact, we’re even going to get a history lesson on who Patricia was, and why the beach was named for her.

The story all revolves around a summer cabin that was built at Patricia Beach back about 1944, at that time all privately owned by George and Olive Allen, and which still exists and thrives today on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg.

Gotta’ admit, I knew nothing of the history of Patricia Beach until a few days ago when I received a very interesting e-mail from Catherine Lee, George and Olive’s granddaughter.

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Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Craig Block, which has gone up for sale, housed perhaps the first Black union in North America, the Order of Sleeping Car Porters.
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Craig Block link to city’s Black history

Cody Sellar 4 minute read Preview
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Craig Block link to city’s Black history

Cody Sellar 4 minute read Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021

Above a fruit seller in a small brick building on Main Street, a group of Black railway porters made history.

The Order of Sleeping Car Porters, formed in Winnipeg in 1917, was North America’s first Black labour union. Five years later, they established offices and a meeting hall on the second storey of the building, the Craig Block, at 795 Main St.

Now, the building has hit the market, without any historical status protections or a bronze plaque to commemorate its history.

History writer Christian Cassidy said he’s seen the building, which recently housed retail store Ma’s Fishing, go up for sale once or twice in the past. Each time, he worries someone will buy it and knock it down. It’s one of last buildings that links Winnipeg to the history of its Black communities.

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Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES NDP Hydro Critic Adrien Sala: “It is taking far longer than anyone expected it to.

‘Ignominious anniversary’ of Hydro’s stalled broadband deal

Martin Cash 1 minute read Preview

‘Ignominious anniversary’ of Hydro’s stalled broadband deal

Martin Cash 1 minute read Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021

A year after Manitoba Hydro stopped taking on new contracts for broadband network access, and three months after Xplornet won the bid to manage that network, critics are complaining the continuing moratorium has left would-be customers in the lurch.

Adrien Sala, NDP critic for Hydro, is calling on the Progressive Conservative government to end the stop sell order and disclose the revenue losses suffered from the disruption.

“It is taking far longer than anyone expected it to and it is creating further and further delays for a lot of ISPs (Internet service providers), school divisions and regional health authorities that have asked for service upgrades,” Sala said.

A spokesperson for Reg Helwer, minister of central services, confirmed that the Xplornet agreement has yet to be finalized but is expected to be soon.

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Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021
ALEX LUPUL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Deb Kelley, shelter co-ordinator for the Manitoba Ferret Association No Kill Shelter, with Bear.
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Ferret shelter fears city’s proposed pet limit

Joyanne Pursaga 4 minute read Preview
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Ferret shelter fears city’s proposed pet limit

Joyanne Pursaga 4 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021

An animal shelter fears its network of foster homes could be at risk, should a proposed change to Winnipeg’s responsible pet ownership bylaw be approved.

Deb Kelley, a shelter co-ordinator with the Manitoba Ferret Association No Kill Shelter, said a newly proposed limit that each Winnipeg household be allowed a maximum of five ferrets would not support the shelter’s model of care. The shelter relies on multiple foster homes, ensuring all of them already own ferrets and are qualified to properly care for them.

As a result, many of those homes already contain up to six ferrets, before they take others in temporarily, she said.

“We’re here for every ferret in need, whether it’s old, young, sick, healthy. If the bylaw goes through where each household can have only five ferrets, that would devastate our foster home space,” said Kelley.

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Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021
ALEX LUPUL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Janelle Wride, Delivery Coordinator for Fireweed Food Co-op, and Paul Dyck, a volunteer, pose for a photo with their vegetable stand as part of Fireweed's Veggie Van program on August 19, 2021. The program offers affordable local produce to those in lower income neighbourhoods.
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Veggie Van to bring fresh produce to inner city residents

Eva Wasney 4 minute read Preview
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Veggie Van to bring fresh produce to inner city residents

Eva Wasney 4 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021

A farmer’s market on wheels is hoping to put a dent into the problem of food deserts in Winnipeg’s inner city

Fireweed Food Co-op has launched its new Veggie Van pilot program, which brings subsidized local produce into Winnipeg’s inner city neighbourhoods through a mobile market on Thursday afternoons. The West Central Women’s Resource Centre was the first stop on the Veggie Van’s inaugural tour last week.

“We have zucchini, beets, yellow onion, carrots, sweet corn,” says Fireweed’s food hub delivery co-ordinator Janelle Wride, while standing behind a table piled high with colourful vegetables. “Those are most of the basic items that we have available from the producers right now and each week it’ll change a little bit.”

The goal of the program, she says, is to combat food insecurity by offering cheap, nutritious produce for sale in underserved communities.

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Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021
JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Dietitian Raschelle Sabourin teaches clients how to practise intuitive eating, where diet mentality is rejected and hunger cues are observed and honoured.
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Pandemic isolation impacted our relationship with food, self-image

Eva Wasney 4 minute read Preview
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Pandemic isolation impacted our relationship with food, self-image

Eva Wasney 4 minute read Monday, Aug. 23, 2021

Food has been a global preoccupation during the pandemic. Home cooking became a necessary lockdown pastime and sourdough bread became shorthand for the many food trends that tore through social media. At the same time, one Winnipeg dietitian has seen a rise in emotional and disordered eating over the last year and a half.

“A lot of the things that people use to cope have changed,” says Raschelle Sabourin, a registered dietitian who runs a virtual nutrition counselling practice locally. “People were more isolated and there’s a lack of routine… and people’s relationships changed, so that caused more stress and people are sometimes using food to fill that void.”

Sabourin says that while using food as a coping mechanism can be a quick fix for quelling difficult emotions, the comfort of binge eating doesn’t last.

“For the short term, they might feel really good, but in the long term they’re not feeling good after emotional eating,” she says.

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Monday, Aug. 23, 2021