Oversight of doctor conduct falls short in Manitoba — B.C. may offer solution

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara will need to do better than “deeply concerned and disgusted.”

Presidents come and go but Canada-U.S. trade here to stay

Canada’s trade relationship with the United States is not going away. Nor should it. But there is also nothing wrong with Canada looking for more customers.

Homeless standstill can’t be addressed until province, city collaborate

What we have here is a basic failure to understand the dynamics of homelessness.

Ethics isn’t about big scandals — it’s about little decisions made each day

As an HR consultant, I spend a surprising amount of time talking about ethics. Not because organizations are filled with bad people, but because good people sometimes make poor decisions when they are stressed, feel misplaced entitlement or are convinced “everyone else does it.”

Being appointed executor or power of attorney presents unique challenges few laypeople are prepared for

These important jobs may not be the most onerous on the planet, but for the uninitiated, they probably involve more twists and turns than anticipated.

Kernza clicks some boxes to turn back clock

About 20 years ago, I hopped into a van with some university researchers, students and a government policy analyst to travel a long day’s drive south to the Land Institute in Kansas.

Established by Wes and Dana Jackson in the mid-1970s, the non-profit educational and research centre is trying to take modern agriculture back 10,000 years to revisit its pivot from perennial harvesting to annual cropping and reverse ecological damage.

It offers a fascinating premise — although one many would characterize as unrealistic and impractical by modern measures.

When plants complete their life cycle within one growing season, they put all their energy into producing viable seeds which become the nutritional powerhouses farmers harvest for food ingredients.

Fringe a reminder we’re all playwrights and performers in our own lives

On Wednesday evening, in slightly grey weather, I headed for Théâtre Cercle Molière in St. Boniface to take in my first two performances of this year’s Winnipeg Fringe Festival.

The shows could not have been more different. The first, Afeni, was a biographical monologue about Black Panther activist Afeni Shakur, performed by Edmonton’s Onika Henry, who was making her Winnipeg debut. The second, Absolutely Not a Cult, was a wacky dark comedy by a trio out of New York.

It was just the opening night of the 12-day Fringe — so no reviews to guide audiences yet — but already both venues were bustling. Dozens of fans had come to see one of the two shows, based on nothing more than a brief description in the festival program and a hunch.

A spirit of curiosity. A public willingness to embrace the new, the untested, and even the totally unknown. An excitement to go out and discover, with no guarantees of what you’ll find. If you pick a Fringe show at random, it could bore you to death, or it could change your life. These are the qualities that make Fringe great, both on the stage and in the seats.

Reimagined Little House still shot through with the truth

In 1974, NBC had to issue a press release explaining why Michael Landon, starring as Charles (Pa) Ingalls on the new show Little House on the Prairie, didn’t have a beard.

Fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved Little House books, on which the series was based, objected to Landon’s clean-shaven face. The real Charles Ingalls famously had a beard (a wild one, at that), and Pa certainly has a beard on the page, as illustrated by Garth Williams.

My point is: Lauraheads have always had their bugbears when it comes to adaptations.

Netflix’s new Little House on the Prairie, which dropped on July 9, is no exception. Among the criticisms I have seen: Mary (Skywalker Hughes) isn’t blond. Jack the dog isn’t a bulldog. Laura (Alice Halsey) wouldn’t have a slingshot and she wouldn’t wear a boy’s hat. And she wouldn’t have an Osage pal named Good Eagle (Wren Zhawenim Gotts).

First Nations’ concerns overshadowed by talk of major projects

The contrast could not have been more stark in Ottawa — unceded Algonquin territory — this week.

Cool yourself, not your car: time to stop denying climate change

The magnitude of climate change denial slapped me in the face in — of all places — the grassy parking lots at the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

Back for a visit to see my daughter and hear some live music, I found myself weaving through row upon row of vehicles stacked on the hard-packed fields of Birds Hill park, east of the main Folk Festival site.

We had strategically parked at the far east end of that lot to avoid being caught in the crush of fans trying to leave after the last show. Unfortunately, that made a simple trip back to the car to restock on sunscreen a bit of a hike.

It was early afternoon, and so hot that admittedly it was hard to breathe. The weather app on my phone claimed it was 39 C and I had no reason to doubt it. As I snaked my way though the cars, I started to notice something remarkable: several of the cars I was passing were idling.

Poise versus passion for historic World Cup final

All things considered, and despite the howls of partisan rivals and conspiracy theorists, Sunday’s World Cup final is probably the right World Cup final, and for all the right reasons.

Never before have the reigning champions of Europe and South America gone head-to-head for global football supremacy. Never, that is, until Sunday. Only twice before has each finalist featured a previous Ballon d’Or winner. Sunday will be the third.

Spain, the European champion captained by Rodri, who won the Ballon d’Or two years ago, enters the final without a defeat over 90 minutes in 37 matches. Argentina, the South American champion captained by Lionel Messi — who boasts of a record eight Ballons d’Or — enters the final with 14 straight wins.

We could go on, but pretty much any way we’d slice it would leave us with Spain and Argentina. They are the best teams in the world in this moment, the most worthy World Cup combatants.

Uncorked: Maximize your wine-buying dollars

Getting the best bang for your buck, wine-wise, isn’t always the most straightforward endeavour — the razzle-dazzle of marketing, the safety of brand recognition and fear of the unknown can prompt imbibers to stick with the same old-same old.

But for those with the know-how, there are some tricks to maximizing your wine-buying dollars. Here are a few of my favourite ways to optimize your budget the next time you’re at your favourite shop.

Stay connectedI know, most of us feel like we get way too many emails already, but for those looking to save a few bucks on wines, signing up for updates/newsletters from your preferred shop can provide benefits.

Liquor Marts, for example, tend to send out emails at the beginning and midway point of each month detailing limited-time offers and “hot buys.”

Police and mental health don’t mix: so why can’t we fix it?

It was the fateful moment when death became almost inevitable.

On Monday, a man called 911 at 8:40 p.m. to report that his brother, who had lifelong mental health issues, was suffering from a crisis and had locked himself in the Linden Woods home they shared.

Winnipeg police did not respond, nor did anyone from the Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis, a hybrid unit involving a plainclothes police officer and a mental health professional. The man called 911 again at 10 p.m., indicating he was still locked out of his house and his brother was yelling at him through the front window.

This is where we reach the aforementioned fateful moment, when a cry for help is transformed into a lethal confrontation. Specifically, it’s that moment when, following the second 911 call, the Winnipeg Police Service decided the situation was too volatile for ARCC and instead dispatched uniformed officers.

Poilievre can only smile and nod after Carney’s chess move

Mark Carney may still be relatively new to elected politics, but he’s proving to be a remarkably quick study in the art of political chess.

Carney trumps Trump with Gordie Howe bridge deal

This is the reality of dispute resolution with the Trump administration: getting what we want but doing it in a way that gives the wacky, volatile and irrational president some sort of moral victory to parade on social media.