If Donald Trump were a religious man, he might have said “There but for the grace of God go I” when he heard that former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years in prison. Bolsonaro’s crime was to have plotted a coup to take back the presidency he lost in the 2022 election.

Trump is acutely aware of the similarities between Bolsonaro’s case and his own bumbling, half-hearted attempt to incite a coup on Jan. 6, 2021. Both men were voted out after a single term in office, both immediately declared that the election had been stolen by the opposition, and both then chickened out of a coup at the last moment.

Trump feels the parallels so keenly that he did not just condemn the Bolsonaro trial, claiming that it was a “witch-hunt.” Although the United States has a positive trade balance with Brazil, Trump has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on imports from Brazil as an explicit punishment for putting his friend and ally on trial.

Trump must be feeling close to all-powerful right now. Only eight months into his second term after a triumphant comeback election, he is nearing the point where he can sweep the whole 238-year-old constitutional apparatus of the United States aside and rule by decree.

Two neighbouring Winnipeg restaurants have landed in the national spotlight just six months after opening.

On Tuesday, Baby Baby (137 Osborne St.) and Shirley’s (135 Osborne St.) were named among 31 finalists in the running for a spot on Air Canada’s 2025 Best New Restaurants list.

For Chris Gama, co-chef and partner at Baby Baby, it’s a meaningful accolade after years of behind-the-scenes labour.

“It’s been a lot of work,” says Gama, who co-owns the restaurant with Raya Konrad, Daly Gyles and Nick Gladu. “We’re really proud of ourselves and we’re really proud of our team… because it takes all of us to build something nice,”

As the City of Winnipeg appears poised to implement new rules that target people who live in encampments, questions should be raised about who — if anyone — will be safer as a result.

Winnipeg city council’s community services committee recently unanimously approved a motion, introduced and amended by Coun. Cindy Gilroy and seconded by Coun. Sherri Rollins, to prohibit encampments in and around a wide range of spaces, including playgrounds, pools, schools, daycares, transit stops, bridges and rail lines. It also directs the city to expand enforcement across all other city spaces during daylight hours, which could mean issuing bylaw tickets. The motion will go to council’s executive policy committee before a final vote by council.

While some, including Mayor Scott Gillingham, have described these new rules as a “balanced approach” to deal with encampments, we have seen this type of approach before and it does not work.

The motion is framed around safety, especially for children and families. That concern should not be dismissed — no one disputes that unsafe materials have been found in public spaces, but tying those concerns directly to encampments offers a misleading choice. It suggests that the safety of families must come at the expense of people experiencing homelessness. And with Winnipeg’s child poverty rate the highest in the nation, many of the children and families this ban claims to protect are also among those it targets.

Dividing outreach providers won’t solve homelessness. Collaboration and a managed encampment-to-housing site will. As winter closes in, Winnipeg faces a mounting crisis. More people than ever are living unsheltered, exposed to harsh weather, unsafe conditions and the devastating risks of addiction.

Riverbank encampments and makeshift shelters in public spaces have become dangerous not only for residents but also for outreach workers and emergency responders who must navigate snow- and ice-covered terrain just to provide help. Encampment residents, meanwhile, live without even the basic dignity of an outhouse.

The overdose death rate in Winnipeg is among the highest in the country, and too many of those deaths happen in encampments. This cannot continue.

For too long, the conversation has been stalled by a false narrative: that homelessness is solely the result of a lack of subsidized housing. While the housing shortage is real, it is only part of the story. The deeper truth is that Winnipeg is in the grip of a drug-use epidemic that has become the single largest pipeline into homelessness.