How perspectives change perception

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

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Slow fashion houses embrace made-to-order to reduce waste

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview
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Slow fashion houses embrace made-to-order to reduce waste

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

TORONTO - On occasion, fashion designer and clothier Katelyn Woodburn is accused of running a scam.

When a customer makes a purchase without reading the "about" section on her website or following her on social media, they might send an email a week or two later saying something like: "Where's my order? It hasn't even shipped yet? What's going on?" Woodburn recounted from her Vancouver studio.

"Which is a totally reasonable response," she added. Consumers are conditioned to expect instant gratification when it comes to clothes shopping, but that's not really how Woodburn does things.

"I'll say, 'Oh, your shirt is being cut out. We're going to sew it tomorrow.' I tell them the whole process of what's happening. And 100 per cent of the time, I get a response going, 'Oh my gosh, I didn't even realize. This is so cool, no rush at all.'"

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Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

Fashion designer and clothier Katelyn Woodburn poses in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Victoria Black *MANDATORY CREDIT*
Fashion designer and clothier Katelyn Woodburn poses in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Victoria Black *MANDATORY CREDIT*
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Poll highlights belief in rising corruption

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read Friday, Nov. 29, 2024

Manitobans’ trust in businesses — and government’s ability to address corruption — is on a downhill slope, a new Angus Reid Institute poll found.

“I feel like things are getting more and more shifty, especially after COVID,” said Will Houston, as he shopped in a Winnipeg supermarket this week.

Prices across the board have skyrocketed over the past few years, he noted.

“I fully acknowledge that there are supply chains and there’s people who need to be paid all the way back to the producer,” Houston said. “But I think that there are people who are taking a higher cut than they used to.”

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Miss Shakespeare turns gender bias on its ear

Holly Harris 6 minute read Preview
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Miss Shakespeare turns gender bias on its ear

Holly Harris 6 minute read Sunday, Sep. 29, 2024

Winnipeg Studio Theatre kicked off its season with the guts and glory of female empowerment in its all-women-led local premiere of Miss Shakespeare.

The two-hour musical — directed by company artistic director Erin McGrath and presented by Rainbow Stage — runs through Oct. 5 at the University of Winnipeg’s Asper Centre for Theatre and Film. Saturday night’s crowd eagerly lapped up its feminist ethos.

Its quasi-historical protagonist, Judith Shakespeare (played by a spunky Rhea Rodych-Rasidescu), is the Bard’s real-life daughter “born with a poetic soul.” Judith lives in the shadows of her famous father during the repressive 1600s, when women were relegated to becoming wives and mothers, rather than pursuing their own passions.

Judith yearns for her own identity as a self-actualized creative powerhouse, and cobbles together the “Gossips,” a merry band of like-minded women who surreptitiously meet each week in the bowels of The Cage tavern to create a play. They spar, share stories, and dream, risking public humiliation if they’re discovered treading the boards like their male counterparts.

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Sunday, Sep. 29, 2024

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Rhea Rodych-Rasidescu (centre) and others run through a scene on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. An all-woman cast and crew are behind the upcoming Winnipeg Studio Theatre-Rainbow Stage presentation of Miss Shakespeare. For arts story. Winnipeg Free Press 2024
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Rhea Rodych-Rasidescu (centre) and others run through a scene on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. An all-woman cast and crew are behind the upcoming Winnipeg Studio Theatre-Rainbow Stage presentation of Miss Shakespeare. For arts story. Winnipeg Free Press 2024

Mountain of Skibicki news coverage has irreparably biased jurors, U.S. researcher tells trial judge

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Mountain of Skibicki news coverage has irreparably biased jurors, U.S. researcher tells trial judge

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 30, 2024

Extensive pre-trial media coverage in the case of accused serial killer Jeremy Skibicki has biased the jury pool beyond the court’s ability to correct the damage, a judge was told Tuesday.

“We know that when (jurors) have been exposed to a certain amount of pre-trial publicity, even for a well-intentioned juror it is going to be very, very difficult for them to (remain unbiased),” testified Florida University psychology professor Dr. Christine Ruva, who has extensively researched the area of juror bias and its impact on jury decision-making. “It’s unconscious and out of their control.”

Skibicki, 37, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the May 2022 slayings of three Indigenous women — Morgan Harris, Rebecca Contois and Marcedes Myran — as well as a fourth as-of-yet unidentified woman killed in March 2022, who Indigenous leaders have given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.

A trial jury was selected last week and is set to begin hearing evidence May 8.

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Tuesday, Apr. 30, 2024

COURT SKETCH BY JAMES CULLETON

King’s Branch Justice Glenn Joyal oversees the opening of accused serial killer Jeremy Skibicki’s trial Monday.
COURT SKETCH BY JAMES CULLETON King’s Branch Justice Glenn Joyal oversees the opening of accused serial killer Jeremy Skibicki’s trial Monday.
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Satirical musical tackles health-care woes in bite-sized chunks

Thandi Vera 5 minute read Preview
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Satirical musical tackles health-care woes in bite-sized chunks

Thandi Vera 5 minute read Thursday, Apr. 18, 2024

They say laughter is the best medicine. Throw a little song-and-dance into the mix and you get Larry Saves the Canadian Healthcare System — an 11-part web microseries that humorously addresses Canada’s ailing medical system through music and satire.

Sara Kreindler, a professor of community health sciences at the University of Manitoba, spearheads the show, drawing from her extensive research.

“It’s about starting a conversation,” says writer-composer Kreindler, who has a PhD in social psychology. “Whether you’re a health-care provider or just someone curious about the system, I want viewers to come away feeling empowered to hold our elected leaders accountable for addressing the underlying issues.”

Through the character of Larry, played by Winnipeg actor Toby Hughes, viewers embark on a journey navigating the complexities of health-care policy.

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Thursday, Apr. 18, 2024

Supplied

Larry (Toby Hughes, left, with Melanie Whyte and Lisa Bell) delves into our health care.
Supplied Larry (Toby Hughes, left, with Melanie Whyte and Lisa Bell) delves into our health care.

The price of political polarization

Allan Levine 5 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 3, 2024

If you follow X (Twitter) as I do, scrolling through hundreds of posts a few times a day, you can’t help but conclude that the political divide in both the U.S. and Canada, between Democrats and Republicans and between Liberals and Conservatives, has become wider and more extreme than it has ever been.

Even if games go on, MLB lockout could alienate Gen Z

Jake Seiner, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

Even if games go on, MLB lockout could alienate Gen Z

Jake Seiner, The Associated Press 7 minute read Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — Max Scherzer stars in the last video posted to Major League Baseball’s TikTok account before the league locked out the players Thursday morning.

The clip, viewed over 400,000 times, shows the final out from Scherzer's first no-hitter in 2015 with Washington, followed by teammates dousing the three-time Cy Young Award winner with chocolate syrup. Hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd's “Swang” plays in the background.

“Max Scherzer is ... officially a New York Met!!!” the caption reads, celebrating Scherzer's $130 million deal to pitch in Queens.

It could be the last post featuring a big league player sent to the account’s 4.8 million followers for months, a curveball with real consequences for a sport already concerned about courting young fans.

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Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

FILE - Los Angeles Dodgers' Max Scherzer pitches against the San Francisco Giants during the ninth inning of Game 5 of a baseball National League Division Series Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021, in San Francisco. Eight-time All-Star Max Scherzer is nearing a $130 million, three-year contract with the New York Mets, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity Monday, Nov. 29, because the agreement was still being worked on and would be subject to a successful physical.(AP Photo/John Hefti, File)
FILE - Los Angeles Dodgers' Max Scherzer pitches against the San Francisco Giants during the ninth inning of Game 5 of a baseball National League Division Series Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021, in San Francisco. Eight-time All-Star Max Scherzer is nearing a $130 million, three-year contract with the New York Mets, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity Monday, Nov. 29, because the agreement was still being worked on and would be subject to a successful physical.(AP Photo/John Hefti, File)

Puncturing the shield of ‘implicit bias’

Niigaan Sinclair 5 minute read Preview

Puncturing the shield of ‘implicit bias’

Niigaan Sinclair 5 minute read Friday, Feb. 5, 2021

A leaked internal report this week into the conduct of four Winnipeg firefighters showed evidence of “implicit racial bias” against an Indigenous woman and “racial animus” towards a paramedic (also a person of colour) on a call in October 2020.

The report is clear: identifying the actions of the firefighters put the woman’s health at risk, delayed her journey to the hospital, and showed callous disregard for her safety. One firefighter riding in the ambulance refused to help the paramedic, forcing the injured woman to hold the dressing to the stab wound on her own neck.

Later, one of them called it: “Just another call in the North End.”

According to the report, it was part of “retaliation” against the paramedic, who previously alleged racist conduct by members of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service — including one of the firefighters involved, who called him a “sand n-----.”

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Friday, Feb. 5, 2021

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS 49.8 Feature: Firefighter Lionel Crowther at #11 fire station on Portage and with his family at their home in North Kildonan. Photo of Firefighters helmet with UFFW sticker on it - Never Forget, Never Quit. See Story by Nick Martin on 10th anniversary of fire at 15 Place Gabrielle Roy in old St. Boniface that took the lives of two veteran firefighters, Thomas Nichols and Harold Lessard. Jan 25, 2017
RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS 49.8 Feature: Firefighter Lionel Crowther at #11 fire station on Portage and with his family at their home in North Kildonan. Photo of Firefighters helmet with UFFW sticker on it - Never Forget, Never Quit. See Story by Nick Martin on 10th anniversary of fire at 15 Place Gabrielle Roy in old St. Boniface that took the lives of two veteran firefighters, Thomas Nichols and Harold Lessard. Jan 25, 2017

Dove is the latest company to raise people's ire with a tone-deaf ad

Doug Speirs 10 minute read Preview

Dove is the latest company to raise people's ire with a tone-deaf ad

Doug Speirs 10 minute read Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017

Talk about getting under people’s skin.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past week, you’ll know skin-care giant Dove sparked a firestorm with a Facebook ad that depicts a black woman transforming into a white woman after using its body wash.

Dove quickly pulled the offending video clip after outraged social media users branded it racist and said it reminded them of soap ads from the 19th or early 20th century that showed black people scrubbing their skin to become white.

In the three-second video, posted on Dove’s U.S. Facebook page late last week, a young black woman smiles as she peels off her dark brown shirt to reveal a white woman in a beige shirt, who then lifts her own top to reveal another woman.

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Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017
Pitch imperfect

No excuse for ads that verge on child porn

By Lindor Reynolds 4 minute read Preview

No excuse for ads that verge on child porn

By Lindor Reynolds 4 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 7, 2009

Would you like a little cheesecake with that celery?

Loblaw's Real Canadian Superstores are bagging their own apologies after a nationwide distribution of a flyer advertising its Joe Fresh underwear line.

The problem wasn't the bras, panties and tank tops being sold at the grocery chain. It was the fact that the models, all of them sporting fresh-from-the-bed, tousled hair and come-hither looks, appear to be in their early teens.

One model, shot splay-legged in a bra and panties, looks to be at the very start of puberty.

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Tuesday, Apr. 7, 2009
No excuse for ads that verge on child porn