WEATHER ALERT

Role of news media

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

No Subscription Required

Religious groups must keep careful eye on artificial intelligence

John Longhurst 5 minute read Saturday, May. 23, 2026

Programmers, computer scientists and software, mechanical, data and prompt engineers — these are some of the professions behind the creation of artificial intelligence. Should theologians and faith leaders also be involved?

Meghan Sullivan, a Roman Catholic who teaches philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, says yes. That’s why she was glad to attend a meeting in March at the invitation of Anthropic, the creator of Claude AI, about the role religion can play in the creation of this life-changing technology.

Sullivan, who also directs the university’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, was there with 15 other Christian philosophers, theologians and leaders to discuss the implications of AI for society today — and how it can be taught to behave ethically and morally using religion as a guide.

I spoke with Sullivan this week about that meeting. “I’m very grateful for Anthropic’s leadership in this area with faith communities,” she said, noting that most AI companies are not doing that. “It should have happened sooner, but better late than never.”

No Subscription Required

La grande histoire d’un petit village

Hugo Beaucamp 7 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

La grande histoire d’un petit village

Hugo Beaucamp 7 minute read Saturday, May. 23, 2026

Le village de Sainte-Agathe, qui borde les rives de la rivière Rouge et de la rivière aux Rats, à près de 40 kilomètres au sud de Winnipeg, fêtera ce 28 mai son 150e anniversaire.

Alors 150 ans, ça fait beaucoup de bougies, certainement trop pour toutes les faire tenir sur un gâteau, mais ça ne veut pas dire qu’on laisse tomber les célébrations.

Ce 28 mai, l’évènement se tiendra près du quai de Sainte-Agathe, où un bateau transportait les voitures d’un côté à l’autre de la rivière, à l’époque où il n’existait pas de pont.

Joel Lemoine, conseiller municipal pour Sainte-Agathe détaille la nature des célébrations.

Read
Saturday, May. 23, 2026
No Subscription Required

Manitoba’s newspapers portrayed province as rife with untamed potential — to the detriment of the Indigenous community

Reviewed by Matt Henderson 5 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Manitoba’s newspapers portrayed province as rife with untamed potential — to the detriment of the Indigenous community

Reviewed by Matt Henderson 5 minute read Saturday, May. 23, 2026

Historian Howard Zinn once compared the historian’s perspective to that of the mapmaker. We have the human tendency to see the world from our point of view, regardless of our best intentions and feigned attempts at objectivity.

Such is the same for newspapers, both historically and in their present form. Newspapers carry with them a certain perspective — a leaning of sorts that is inherent and molded in the perspective of owners, editorial boards and journalists themselves.

You can’t be neutral on a moving train, as Zinn would argue.

In the 19th century, however, newspapers notoriously and explicitly saw the world and tried to shape it from the perspective and agenda of its owners. George Brown’s Globe in Upper Canada, for example, was a classic example of a partisan media that used its platform to undermine rivals, the French and various governments.

Read
Saturday, May. 23, 2026

It’s time to start simplifying for success

Mitch Calvert 5 minute read Saturday, May. 23, 2026

You’re tired in a way coffee doesn’t fix anymore. Your energy isn’t what it once was. Your clothes don’t fit right. You weren’t always like this — you used to chase your kids around the yard without thinking about it. You used to put on a swimsuit without a care in the world. You used to eat a burger and drink a beer on a Friday and wake up Saturday feeling fine.

What gives? Nothing seems to work anymore. It’s not for lack of trying. You did keto for six weeks until you cracked at a birthday party. You tried intermittent fasting until your 2 p.m. headache became a personality trait every co-worker saw coming. You bought a Peloton that became a sweater dryer. You did those circuit workouts at the place down the street until your back tweaked. You consulted the clinic that promised a peptide and supplement cocktail would fix it all. Spoiler: It didn’t. The pantry has a graveyard of half-empty protein tubs. The drawer has six supplement bottles you weren’t consistently taking. The closet has a pair of jeans you keep “just in case.”

Here’s the part nobody wants to say out loud: The reason none of it stuck isn’t because you lack discipline or your metabolism is broken. It’s because none of those plans were built for a person living your current reality.

Keto works for some people for a while. Fasting works for some people for a while. The reason they didn’t work for you is you have client dinners. You have your kid’s birthday cake. You have the lake in July and the kitchen at midnight after a long Tuesday.

Outrage over Northland Tales program hypocritical

Niigaan Sinclair 5 minute read Preview

Outrage over Northland Tales program hypocritical

Niigaan Sinclair 5 minute read Friday, May. 22, 2026

Mud-slinging isn’t stopped by slinging more mud — and the concept behind the satirical TV show Northland Tales is an attempt to harmfully engage with a set of harmful beliefs and behaviours.

Read
Friday, May. 22, 2026

Combat in the classroom: Many Manitoba public school teachers are concerned violence is making their jobs more difficult

Maggie Macintosh 9 minute read Preview

Combat in the classroom: Many Manitoba public school teachers are concerned violence is making their jobs more difficult

Maggie Macintosh 9 minute read Friday, May. 22, 2026

The majority of teachers in a new Probe Research study reported both the prevalence of violence and severity of incidents has increased since they joined the profession. Early years and veteran teachers, along with those working in Winnipeg, were the most likely to report worsening conditions.

Read
Friday, May. 22, 2026

Planning for an electric future — now

Norman Brandson 5 minute read Friday, May. 22, 2026

The shift away from fossil fuels to an electrified economy will advantage those who strongly invest in renewables.

What you don’t know can, in fact, hurt you

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

What you don’t know can, in fact, hurt you

Editorial 4 minute read Friday, May. 22, 2026

‘What you don’t know can’t hurt you.”

It’s an interesting maxim, accurate in some settings.

But equally accurate might be, “What you won’t know, can hurt you.”

The last few years of politics — particularly in the United States but in other places as well — have been remarkably fractious and absolutist. You’re on one side or the other. You choose who to listen to, and what to believe in. People you don’t agree with are obviously stupid.

Read
Friday, May. 22, 2026

Firewood, the emerald ash borer and you

Bob Austman 4 minute read Preview

Firewood, the emerald ash borer and you

Bob Austman 4 minute read Friday, May. 22, 2026

Turning Winnipeg into a quarantine zone in 2018 with the first EAB discovery may well have helped protect the province’s ash trees from the spread of the borer.

Read
Friday, May. 22, 2026

As permafrost thaws, some headwaters in Canada’s North turn orange and toxic: study

Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Preview

As permafrost thaws, some headwaters in Canada’s North turn orange and toxic: study

Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Friday, May. 22, 2026

Ancient bedrock exposed by disappearing permafrost is releasing toxic metals into Canada's northern rivers, a new study says, with once-pristine subarctic streams now comparable in some cases to highly acidic, contaminated mining sites.

The findings out of Yukon point to an "unfolding environmental disaster," one co-author said, and adds to alarm over the rapid climate-fuelled changes in the North.

"We don't know the end point, but there's nothing about this that gives me any feeling of like, 'oh, we're going to be OK'," said co-author Sean Carey, a professor at McMaster University.

"I'm not even a gloomy person. This looks pretty gloomy."

Read
Friday, May. 22, 2026