Planning for the future’s wildfires

It’s been a terrible year for wildfires in Manitoba, and a betting person would say future years are unlikely to be any better, unless we start planning how to change our fire response now.

Autumn is a season of remembering

I am walking by a river on a perfect day. The water is gurgling its contentment at being warmed by the October sun. It glistens like diamonds where it is touched by the dappled light coming through the trees.

Letters, Oct. 15

Limited resources, compounded by trust issues, makes housing transitions even harder. Simply putting a roof over a person’s head is only the first step.

Radical moderation: The revolution nobody asked for, but we all need

What we need is not more radicalism, but radical moderation. Not passivity, not mushy centrism, but a deliberate, almost defiant embrace of reasonableness. In an age of piercing certainty, moderation itself becomes a radical act.

Clock is ticking on Poilievre to reevaluate his approach

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre faces a key leadership review from his party in three months time. Is it too early for him to start worrying?

Just how far will Donald Trump go?

In a live interview last week with CNN, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller stopped talking in mid-sentence right after he uttered the phrase “plenary authority.”

Transparency the only option for NDP on proposed detox centre

If the Manitoba government wants to move ahead with its plan to open a 72-hour detox centre for highly intoxicated people, it owes the public — especially residents living near the proposed site — a lot more information than it has provided so far.

Premier Wab Kinew’s government quietly floated the idea of repurposing a site — located at 190 Disraeli Fwy. — that was originally considered for a supervised consumption facility into a so-called “stabilization centre,” where people under the influence of drugs or alcohol could be held for up to 72 hours.

The goal, according to the government, would be to provide a safe place for people to detox, get medical care and connect them with treatment and recovery supports.

It sounds like a compassionate, common-sense response to the visible addictions crisis gripping Winnipeg’s core. But there are a lot of unanswered questions — not just about how such a centre would operate and how the surrounding community would be protected, but also about the legal and scientific basis for holding people against their will for as long as three days.