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Getting a boost: The Winnipeg Boldness Project's work in Point Douglas

If the Winnipeg Boldness Project has a poster girl, it’s Wendy Hallgrimson.

The 32-year-old Point Douglas resident has been involved with the project since before it even officially started. She was pregnant with her son, Lindal, when she heard about the initiative, which aims to improve outcomes for young children in the Point Douglas area by working with members of that community.

Hallgrimson was sobered by the statistics. Her neighbourhood — the neighbourhood she and her partner, James Zebrasky, grew up in and continue to call home today — has the dubious distinction of leading the country in terms of poverty, poor health and educational outcomes, violent crime, as well as drug and alcohol abuse. And many of the children in this neighbourhood are already at an unfair disadvantage the moment they are born.

Sixty per cent of children in Point Douglas are starting school at a point where they are ready to learn. The other 40 per cent, owing to a variety of interconnected socio-economic factors, are already behind. This can have lasting effects well into adulthood.

From the medical tent to the front line: women and war

The troops standing in formation in a farmer’s field in the century-old, black-and-white photograph look as if they’re ready to fight the enemy in the First World War.

They can’t, though — posing at a dairy farm in Headingley, they’re a good 6,500 kilometres from the front in Europe. And there’s another glaring obstacle even the strongest among them couldn’t overcome; an obstacle that would thwart even their daughters and granddaughters when it came to roles within the Canadian military.

They are women. And in 1915, and for several decades to come, that’s a problem.

The role of women in the Canadian military — and in Canada itself — has come a long way since the First World War. Women have gone from being relegated to serving only as nurses to being able to serve in any role, including (beginning in 2000) on Royal Canadian Navy submarines.

Retracing a Winnipeg grandfather’s journey from Guernsey to the Western Front

Lying on a stretcher in a dressing station, suffering from serious wounds to his elbow and abdomen, Arthur Stanley Blicq faced a life-or-death choice: stay behind and be taken prisoner by the advancing German army or attempt the walk to a field hospital four kilometres away.

Dizzy from blood loss, he moved from his stretcher, stood up “... and tottered to the entrance,” he recalled in an unflinching memoir of his First World War experiences.

“Here, kid,” a corporal advised. “You can’t do it.” |

Energy, engagement likely key to Trudeau’s governing style

OTTAWA — On the day after the election, the feeling of change was everywhere — in elevators, in coffee shops, at downtown bus stops. 

And people were repeatedly saying they expect big things of prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau. Ironic, after expectations of him were so low at the start of the election campaign. 

But Trudeau’s unlikely majority government win has symbolized not just a policy shift for Canada, but a personality shift. 

Trudeau himself has done everything in his power to paint the picture for Canadians that he is as different from Stephen Harper as you can get.

Building great roads poses great challenge

On a cool and cloudy September evening last year in Winnipeg, a basement meeting room of a Polo Park-area hotel became a showcase for the woeful, collective ignorance about road construction.

The room had been booked for a civic election debate on infrastructure. It was organized by the Association of Manitoba Municipalities and CAA Manitoba to put all the mayoral candidates on the record about what they would do to fix the province’s crumbling roads and bridges.

For about two hours, the seven candidates spoke about how worried they were about the state of the roads, how they would use innovative methods and materials to build better and smarter, drive higher standards with contractors and stretch each tax dollar to get the upper hand.

The candidates were impassioned. They were all deeply committed to finding solutions. But most of all, they were profoundly, hilariously ignorant about what goes into building a road.

How a proactive paramedic program helps frequent 911 callers

The sounds of Elvis Presley warbling a ballad greet paramedic Karen Martin as she enters a cluttered and modestly furnished apartment in the West Broadway area. Dozens of magazine photos of ‘the King’ and Marilyn Monroe plaster the walls, where Martin’s patient, Amber, lives with her dad, Michael.

Martin takes Amber’s blood pressure using a portable kit she’s hauled in from her truck. She asks her how she’s doing.

Amber once frequented hospital emergency rooms in the city eight or nine times per week.

It’s now been months since she has taken an ambulance to the hospital.

Colourful history of Neepawa's cemetery draws visitors from all over

NEEPAWA — Headstones can make for interesting reading.

Take this rhyme from the headstone of John James Black, b. Apr. 4, 1860; d. Dec. 9, 1934, in Neepawa’s Riverside Cemetery.

“Reader behold as you pass by,

As you are now, so once was I.

30 years later, Fred Penner’s career is still going strong

If you’re among the generation of Canadians who grew up with Fred Penner’s Place, the now-iconic opening montage is imprinted in your brain.

We remember Fred Penner, the warm, kind-eyed children’s entertainer who actually talked to us — never down at us — traversing the Canadian wilds with a rucksack on his back and a guitar in hand. We remember him delighting in discoveries along the way, be they a frog or a bird. We remember him crawling through the hollow log, the one that would magically transport him to his sanctuary — and into our living rooms.

Every weekday on CBC, from 1985 to 1997, Penner taught us about the importance of kindness, reminding us to take good care of each other. He taught us about the life-changing power of music. He taught us how to problem-solve. Along with Word Bird, he helped us with our spelling and expanded our vocabularies. His fondness for bright sweaters taught us a thing or two about confidence. For 15 minutes — or half an hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays — we were part of the world’s most inclusive club. It didn’t matter if we lived in Winnipeg or Vancouver or Yellowknife or Halifax. Fred Penner’s Place was home to all of us.

Indeed, Penner loomed large in our childhoods. His lessons and songs stayed with us long after Fred Penner’s Place was unceremoniously cancelled in 1997 and that opening montage faded into nostalgia.

At 74, life-long gearhead still has need for speed

I’ve known Wally for 25 years but only learned last month his family name is Dyck.

I suspect the oversight is fairly common, that the hundreds of people who deal with him today and the thousands who have dealt with him over the past 50 years, know him only as Wally, too.

His last name never seemed to matter. Everyone knows Wally. They ask for Wally on the phone. Call “Hi, Wally” when they greet him. Like Prince or Madonna or Drake, he doesn’t seem to need a last name.

Wally is that nice old guy who has been behind the counter at the Sturgeon Creek Garage on Portage Avenue forever.

Refugees share stories of escape from their homelands and triumphs in their new land

Images of Syrian refugees desperate to get to a safe place have the rest of the world wondering what is going to happen to those people.

Where will they go? What will become of them? Decades later, what stories will they have to tell?

Six Winnipeggers who were forced to flee their home countries over the last 70 years share their personal stories — of tragedy and triumph — of coming to Canada. We asked them five questions:

What and why you were fleeing? What, if any, were the dangers of the journey? What has been your experience since coming to Canada? What does it mean to contribute to Canadian society? What are your thoughts on Canada’s immigration policies? They share their personal journeys and their thoughts on the dire situation in Syria. (Some answers have been edited for length and clarity.)

Take a trip down Manitoba's original superhighway

LA GRAND FOURCHE, Man. — On the lower reaches of the Hayes River, beige cliffs comprised of soft Hudson Bay Lowlands silt rise up 30 metres from the water to precariously perched stands of spruce.

The cliffs are constantly eroding, as evidenced by fresh mudslides and toppled trees along the water line. Every day, the Hayes River erases more of its history, arguably the most significant of any Manitoba waterway.

For centuries, the Cree used the highly navigable Hayes to travel between Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay, forgoing the more turbulent Nelson River to the northwest.

They showed the Hayes to European traders and explorers, who used it as their main route into the interior of the continent from 1670 to 1870.

The futuristic world of driverless cars is coming sooner than you think

It’s 7 a.m. on a sunny Monday morning in the not-too-distant future, like a hundred Mondays before. You eat breakfast and hop in your car. As the garage door opens, sonar, cameras and radar guide you out and determine if it’s safe to exit the driveway.

Forty-five minutes later, you’re at work; you walk in and begin your workday.

What’s different? You didn’t drive. Your car did.

Driverless cars, where human driving skills are replaced by those of a microchip, are coming sooner than you think — possibly before this decade is out.

A rich history comes to the fore as Golf Manitoba marks its 100th anniversary

Millions of rounds of golf have been played in Manitoba since the game’s beginnings here 126 years ago. You can fit a lot of foursomes, fairways, floods, fires and four-letter words into that kind of time.

You’ll also find the finest of people throughout the decades. And among all the highlights, that is the biggest of Golf Manitoba’s 100th anniversary.

The beginnings of organized provincial golf took place in the summer of 1915, when the Manitoba Golf Association was born out of the efforts of individuals from five established clubs of the day: St. Charles, Pine Ridge, Norwood, Winnipeg Hunt and Elmhurst.

“The people part is so important,” said Tammy Gibson, Golf Manitoba’s president-elect who produced a visual/video presentation recapping the 100 years for an upcoming anniversary celebration.

Can online shamers bring about change?

Calling herself “Patient Zero” of cyber-bullying, Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern whose relationship with then-president Bill Clinton became an unprecedented scandal in the late ’90s, stepped into the spotlight again last March with her landmark TED Talk in Vancouver called ‘The Price of Shame’. She garnered international attention in detailing how her experience — “losing a personal reputation on a global scale almost instantaneously” — has become frighteningly common online.

Also in March, Welsh journalist and author Jon Ronson released his New York Times bestseller So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. Ronson spent three years interviewing the subjects of high-profile online shamings of a different sort, including Justine Sacco, the PR executive who lost her job after a racist joke she made on Twitter — “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” — went viral. And Jonah Lehrer, the journalist who was exposed for fabricating Bob Dylan quotes in his bestselling book, Imagine: How Creativity Works. And Lindsey Stone, the Massachusetts woman who posted a disrespectful photo at the Arlington National Cemetery. She, too, lost her job.

There are many more shamings like Sacco’s or Stone’s — some very close to home. In 2014, Lorrie Steeves, wife of former city councillor and Winnipeg mayoral candidate Gord Steeves, found herself under fire for a racist Facebook rant she made in 2010. Then there’s Brad Badiuk, the Kelvin High School teacher who was put on leave earlier this year after a series of controversial Facebook posts about aboriginal people.

Between the books, the TED talks and the litany of think pieces, it seems 2015 is the year of shame. Our collective anxiety around Internet shaming — and what justice can look like on the Internet — isn’t unfounded. After all, there’s no universally agreed-upon set of transgressions, and shaming comes in many forms. When we hear stories about people being taken down — or even when we participate in the taking down — many of us have had the same thought: this could happen to me.

Valour overseas, scandal at home

For Winnipeggers, it became clear midway through 1915 the cost would be high and the war would not end soon. The reaction of the majority of people was patriotic and courageous and most accepted great sacrifices would have to be made.

On the home front, people supported the war effort by raising money and volunteering for agencies such as the Red Cross and the Patriotic Fund, established to support the families of soldiers.

Meanwhile, the most serious political scandal in Manitoba history was unfolding, followed by an election that changed the political landscape dramatically.

Raising the First Canadian Division had been relatively easy. About 30,000 men volunteered and were ready to leave for Europe two months after the outbreak of war on July 28, 1914. During 1915, two more divisions were recruited and sent overseas, but the early enthusiasm had begun to wane and it was harder to convince young men to volunteer.

Katz embraces life away from politics, devoting time to the baseball diamond

When Sam Katz walked away from city hall last year, it wasn’t long before he strolled back into a familiar haunt and set up a new office at Shaw Park.

For the decade he served as mayor of Winnipeg, Katz had to take an arm’s-length approach to running the professional baseball team he founded in 1994. Most years, he only managed to catch a handful of Winnipeg Goldeyes games. Now, a little more than a year since Katz announced he would not contest a fourth mayoral election, everything is changed.

There are fewer functions for the ex-mayor these days, and no more fussy formalities. “His worship?” That’s gone. Instead, Katz said, “I’m just Sam.”

By all appearances, the return to private life is treating the 63-year-old just fine. These days, you’re far more likely to spot him wearing shorts than a suit. When the Free Press sat down with the Goldeyes owner Tuesday afternoon, he joked about his choice of footwear: a pair of sock-less slip-on shoes.

Rock 'n' Roads: Free Press writers compile road-trip playlists

If smell is the strongest trigger of human memory, music is a close second.

Crappy classic rock songs can take you back you back to your first social. Holiday tunes may evoke old family memories. Even old TV-show themes and jingles have the power to transport you to another place and time.

Road music, however, exists in a category of its own. The songs imbedded in your brain during road trips – particularly but not always during the summer – are imbued with a sort of magic.

Road songs facilitate a form of time travel, as they serve as a direct and highly personal pathway to important events in your life.

Fort Rouge project's complicated journey

If you step on to a southbound bus at Osborne Station, there’s not much to see along the Southwest Transitway, a 3.6-kilometre patch of pavement that serves as the city’s only rapid-transit corridor.

First, you rumble through a tunnel below some CN Rail lines. Then you travel past the back end of Winnipeg Transit’s headquarters and main garage.

For the final two kilometres, you gaze out at a big green patch of nothingness known as the Fort Rouge Yards.

For more than a decade, this two-kilometre strip of former industrial land has been eyed as the site of Winnipeg’s first transit-oriented development, a collection of new condos and apartments that would allow residents easy transport to work or school without having to rely on cars.

Good times, great tunes: Folk Fest co-founder reminisces about the early days

In 2015, the Free Press sat down with Winnipeg Folk Festival legend Mitch Podolak and asked him to flip through a pile of archival photographs of the event he founded 41 years ago.

He talked about Buffy Sainte-Marie’s first festival show, how using Bruce Cockburn as a draw helped bring in huge crowds in the festival’s infancy, and how some of the early artists helped establish Winnipeg’s summer party at Birds Hill Provincial Park as a mainstay of North American folk festivals.